Koei Coalition Origins
by darkm1st
Summary: Batman, the worlds greatest detective, John, the punished Red Demon of Blackhollow. The two stumble across a mystery that stretches back centuries. Now the two and their teams must pool together with allies from the multiverse to save all of reality from Barbatos. All characters are TM of their owners
1. Chapter 1: The Forge

**Egypt, at night, mileenia ago, a group of people with the symbol of the hawk are galloping through the desert sands, their leader riding ahead**

Carter Hall (Voiced by Sean Schemmel): There is a feeling you get at the beginning of an adventure. You feel it in your veins, the channels, your heart starts pounding, beating only for discovery. My name is Carter Hall, and this is my final journal. I have lived many lives. But I still remember that night like it was yesterday. A young boy has spied something in the sky. A light, and we rode out together, my princess, my advisor, our guards, all to see what it was.

**The horses all let out a neigh as they rear up, knocking some of their riders off, as the leader looks up to see a ship crashing into the sands, before exploding into chunks of scrap metal, one of them decapitating one of the guards, and another splitting his head clean in twain, much like Kronika at the end of Klassic Towers**

Carter: But it was no sign. It was a clue to the greatest mystery in the history of mandkind, and it was written in metal.

**2019, a volcanic eruption is in progress as a Scientist (voiced by Matthew Mercer) is panicing**

Scientist: R-Record Message. The tremors started 40 minutes ago and have only grone worse. I don't know if the rest of the research team made it out in time. It's too late for me. The lava will engulf the base in minutes. I stayed to protect what we've been learning about and made a breakthrough. I keep reading and rereading the data, hoping it comes together, hoping what I saw wasn't true. People need to understand, there's something… There's something fucking wrong with the earth's core. There's something in the metal…

**As he removes a drive, a white hand comes out of the lava, and it's King (Voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) riding on his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, who roars, as Batman (Voiced by Kevin Conroy) is in a mech suit**

King: Dr. Madison. The only way out is through that sodding volcano. Get in.

Dr. Madison: B-Batman, King?

**King summons Frostosaurs, who roars and freezes the lava down into a rocky (but still hot) form**,** where they go through**

Dr. Madison: Oh god, oh god…

Batcomputer (voiced by Kimberly Brooks): Pressure Mounting.

Batman: Compensate. We just need to break through into the open ocean.

Batcomputer: Temperatures surpassing safe levels. Suit will not hold.

King: He said compensate, damn it!

**They head out as the lab erupts into flames from the lava, which melted the ice, before exploding, as Aquaman (Voiced by Phil Lamar) and Kojin Shinigami (voiced by Khary Payton) who is riding on Danger! Nessie!, see the two**

Kojin: I see my boy King.

**they intercept him, with King wearing scooba gear**

King: Aquaman, get him to the surface!

Aquaman: What about you, King?

King: I need to retrieve the data card from Batman's pressure suit.

Aquaman: The Lava flow will comsume that behemoth in seconds! Leave it!

**King sends Frostosaurus, who creates a blizzard that freezes the lava solid, as batman goes to get the data card from the suit, as the pressure crushes it.**

Batman: I can't. There.

**They head up to the surface, where the others are out, with Rikion (voiced by Ian James Cornett) and Josh (Voiced by Matthew Mercer) tending to the survivors**

King: The others?

Aquaman: Kojin's dino friends are pulling them to shore now. No casualties.

Batman: Thank you, Aquaman

Aquaman: Sperg Crew, this was a Wayne Enterprises black site, an off-the-books drilling operation in MY domain.

Rikion: What are you getting at, Arthur?

Aquaman: He wasn't just keeping this place hidden from the surface world. He was keeping it hidden from me.

**Aquaman looks over at the caped crusader**

Aquaman: What are you looking for, Bruce?

**Batman just glares a hole right through the King of Atlantis, as Hayden (Voiced by Brian Drummond) walks up, and grabs Aquaman, lifting him off the ground as his hands grow to claws**

Hayden: With what he knows is locked underneath Atlantis… Is that really the question you wanna go with? What we need to be asking is simpler then that, Aquaman. What are THEY hiding?

**Above, Lady Blackhawk (voiced by Jennifer Hale) is piloting a helecopter**

Lady Blackhawk: He can look all he wants, but he won't find out. Lady Blackhawk to control. Bring me home.

**Meanwhile, at Mogo, home of the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians have summoned Hal Jorden, their ace, for a unenviable task**

Ganthant (Voiced by Brian George): Hal Jorden of Earth. I am temporary pulling you from active duity. I have a private mission for you of paramount importance. This mission MUST remain secret from your fellow lanterns, particularly your fellow earth men

**Green Lantern is a bit surprised at this**

GL (voiced by Steve Blum): This isn't going to be one of your happy little secret missions, is it, Ganthet.

Gantet: There are rumblings in every corner of the Multiverse. Whispers of a stirring in the dark. A terrible truth is coming to light on your home planet. And we must not let it.

**GL sees that the threat is coming from… Wayne Mansion?**

GL: Wait, THESE are the coordinats? THIS is the source of the threat?

Ganthet: Is there a problem? Hal Jordan?

**GL is later seen flying over Wayne Mansion**

GL: _No. No problem at all_

**He lands in the Batcave, where he sees Freddy Kruger (voiced by Robert Englund**

Freddy: Man, there's more spooky shit in this place every time I visit… Oh, sup Hal? Still mad about the Nightmare Sinestro incident?

GL: **rolls eyes** Out of ALL of the Entity's best and brightest, she sent you?

Freddy: Same reason your little smurf friends sent ya.

GL: All right, let's find out what's got Ganthet's robes in a bunch and get the hell out of this mausoleum.

Freddy: Good idea-

**Freddy gets flying kicked by Duke (voiced by Robbie Daymond), and he regains his footing, his claws sparking against the floor of the cave as he puts his hat back on**

Duke: I don't think so. Sorry, guys. I'm on strict orders from Batman. Nobody is allowed inside the cave right now. Not even family.

**GL creates a hand construct that grabs Duke**

Freddy: Yeah, that's not suspicious at all.

Duke: Thought I read that ring of yours didn't work on yellow…

GL: It does if you know what you're doing.

Freddy: Hal, that doesn't make any sense. At all. Still, glad to see Batbreath's still recruiting teenagers that the hockey puck hasn't killed yet. You're kinda new. What's your name? Yellow Robin, Canary? Big Bird?

**Freddy does a laugh as GL rolls his eyes**

GL: See, Freddy, that's why I never did like you. I never laugh at my own jokes.

Duke: All you two need to know is that Batman left me here with a job to do, and if you don't get out right now, you're going to regret it.

Freddy: Aww, how cute, you're doing the voice and everything. Seriously though, what's your name, kiddo?

Duke: Duke Thomas. I don't have a code name yet.

**Freddy sees Jason**

Freddy: Yo, Hockey Puck, Mommy dearest sent you here too?

**Jason just tilts his head and stabs his machete in a holographic wall**

Freddy: Hal… Explain this. **motions to Jason stabbing at the wall**

Duke: What is he doing?

GL: Looking for something… There.

**The trio go in as Duke goes after them**

Duke: H-Hey, come back here!

**Meanwhile, in the Campus, it shows a screen with a crazy woman, saying "Die" repeatedly, while Ra's Al Ghul (Voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) is talking with Junko Enoshima (Voiced by Erin Fitzgerald)**

Ra's: Mrs. Enoshima. Her name is Elaine Thomas.

Junko: She seems nice enough.

Ra's: She was, once. Before The Joker ripped her mind apart. Before her son, Duke, had her moved into Wayne Manor. I made her the offer many years ago. The offer to join a secret battle that stretched back to the dawn of time. An offer to live forever.

**Monokuma (voiced by Brian Beacock) waddles up, and hops on a nearby stack of crates**

Monokuma: She didn't take you up on it, I'm guessing? So why is the great and all powerful Demon's Head walking down memory lane?

Ra's: Mrs. Thomas reactivated, briefly, a few weeks ago. I've been monitoring to make sure she hasn't revealed anything she shouldn't to anyone she shouldn't. But she remains incapable of divulging our secrets, no matter how hard the Batman pries. We needn't worry about her. Our secrecy is paramount to our success. The multiverse is careening toward a crisis unlike anything we've seen before, and it will be up to the Sperg Crew, including your betrothed to preserve mankind's future. If any of us survive long enough to see it…

**Back to the journal, and to Hawkman fighting against an army of demons**

Carter Hall: From that night on, that faithful night in the Egyptian desert, my story is well known. The ship was made of a mysterious substance called Nth metal. It gave me, my wife and our mortal enemy, Hath-Set, eternal life. Sending us into a cycle of reincarnation. Shiera and I fighting on the side fo good, Hath-Set on that of evil

**It shows the two reicarnated in the Middle Ages, the Renascence, and even the old west**

Carter Hall: We were born hundreds, even thousands of times over, cast against each other.

**It shows Hath-Set and Hawkman fighting over the milenniums**

Carter Hall: But the truth is, sometimes, in those dark moments in between lives, before being born again, I would catch glimpses… Glimpses of something bigger, a mystery behind our lives, our story.

**It shows a dark and ruined city, with a gigantic statue of a dark Batman, with drones with the bat logo around it**

Carter: Something terrifying. Something on a scale I'd never seen before. A dream… No, not a dream, a nightmare, echoing through the metal.

**Carter wakes up in a cold sweat**

Carter: So I began following a mystery of my own. Something I told no one about. Not until now.

**Carter looks at his mace**

Carter: Here in these pages. A mystery that would take me places I never dreamed.

**Meanwhile, in a lunar batcave, Batman meets up with GB (voiced by Christine Marie Canabos), who was sent there by King to look into something during John's exile and torture by Dharkon**

Batman: Computer. Send a message to Lucius. Black Site 14 is down. I want site 15 up and running within the week. Keep this one away from the ocean.

**He puts the Shadow Drive iin the computer, as GB looks up**

GB: W-Why are you here?

**Batman just looks at her, before going back to his computer**

GB: Create uplink to the Shadow Drive. Adding new geological data for comparisons.

**He then hears footsteps and their leader, John (voiced by Todd Habberkorn) and Mister Terrific (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) walk up, his hands in his pockets, and a hole in his side**

John: So, it's as bad as you thought it would be?

**Batman tosses some batarangs out of reflex, only for John to pull out his Desert Eagle MK XV and shooting all of of them, both the bullet casings and the batarangs falling down with a clang**

John: What did my guns ever do to you? Or his T-spheres?

Batman: Throw off the calibration of my computers. I didn't realize you two were back, John, Michael.

Mr Terrific: This mystery of yours has made me a little queasy about crossing back and forth. It seemd time I came home for good. But Mr. Terrific keeps his promises. Here's all the data I could gather from the other world.

Batman: Have you told anyone what we've been working on? On either earth?

Mr Terrific: I didn't put "Fair play" on my jacket for laughts. I know what's at stake when the Batmans comes and says he needs a second set of eyes to help see the big picture. You don't break that trust.

GB: And now, what is with that "big picture"?

Mr Terific: I'll be honest, GB. I have a IQ of 179, but I have NO idea what any of this means. The frequency that's being generated across the multiverse is growing stronger, but it's not steady at all. It seems… Random. Like a compass spinning wildly out of control.

**Batman ponders it, alongside John**

GB: That just sparked an idea, didn't it, John? There's nothing in the multiverse that we Spergs know of that could get a clean reading of this data.

Mister Terrific: It would take something massive, something practically cosmic in scale.

Batman: Yes. It will, and where it leads me, there might not be any coming back. And you three. I'm going to need you to do something while I follow this path to the end. I've already extracted the molecules I needed from his body. We all agreed that he was too unstable, that there was no end to what he could do if we weren't careful. But we're going to need him for what comes next. It's time to let HIM out of the box.

**Mister Terrific and GB are shocked, while John smirks**

John: You damn right it is.

**They see the egg of Plastic Man. Meanwhile, back in the Batcave proper, Hal, Duke, Freddy, Jason and Letherface are seen walking through, his ring lighting the way**

Freddy: Seriously, Duke. Only Batman would have a secret cave INSIDE his secret cave.

Duke: I told you, you're not supposed to be here!

GL: What is this place?

**The all too familiar voice of The Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) is heard**

Joker: Oh, I can clear that up for you…

**Freddy gets into his fighting stance, glaring at Duke**

Duke: Don't look at me! I didn't say anything!

GL: Ring, how many life signatures ahead?

**His ring, voiced by Kirk Thornton, starts fritzing up**

Ring: Cannot comply… Interference

**GL looks at his ring**

GL: This doesn't make any sense…

Joker: It wouldn't, would it? A mystery never does at first.

Freddy: Mystery?

Joker: Oh yes, our friend with the pointy ears has been following it for years now.

Duke: Alfred, is that you?

Joker: It all started with a tooth. A metal tooth that could bring the dead back to life. The bedrock of an organization that stretched back centuries.

Duke: The Court of Owls. Right, Dick? I mean, if you're not Alfred, you have to be-

Joker: You see, a metal shouldn't be able to DO what this "Electrum" could do. No compound of gold and silver could make the dead talons walks again, and so Batman had his thread and he pulled and he extracted something from the metal, a strange substance he had never seen before. A metal that science couldn't explain

**Hal winces in pain as his ring feels like it's on fire**

Freddy: Hal! What's wrong?

GL: My ring… It's burning

Joker: Oh, you can feel it, can't you? The power. So could he, and it consumed him. What was this strange metal? What was its connection to the Owls. Why did it share an energy signature with so many of the most powerful artifacts of the planet? Doc Fate's helmet. Aquaman's trident, Wonder Woman's bracers?

**They keep walking through the darkness**

Joker: And so he formed the first team. The first of many tasked with investigating all of this. A team that could move outside Batman's usual realm of influence. Together these Outsiders would operate without the knowledge of the Justice League, the government, or even his precious Bat-Family, uncovering more hidden truths about the metals…

Freddy: Wait a sec… Batman had a Black-Ops team?

GL: Something's really wrong here. I've been to every corner of the Multiverse and my ring has never done this before. We should fall back

Joker: Oh no no nononono, you can't do that. I've been DYING for the chance to see you both face to face. We're all connected you see. I was hoping someone would come meddling. It's been so lonely down here.

Duke: Look, I'm done kidding around. We're talking about Batman. You think I don't know he has secrets? If he's been putting together some kind of mistery for years and he hasn't told me, he has a reason.

Joker: Oh you can't turn back now. This next bit's the best part. It all has to do with a liquid metal shimmering and green. A metal that changes everything. They call it Dionesium. But he wasn't the only one who found it, was he?

Duke: No…

GL: What the hell is going on here? Who are you?

Joker: Oh, I think he's starting to put the pieces together. Just like I did

Joker: You see, he was dragged into this world for a reason. The same reason I'm sure your celestial bosses and that spider sent you two digging for answers.

Freddy: Show yourself!

Joker: Because Batman is getting closer to the truth

Ring: Cannot comply. Anomaly Detected

**Lantern screams in pain**

GL: My arm's on fire. Let's go back to the cave. I can bring in the League. Something's VERY wrong here.

Freddy: No, we keep going, Hal.

Joker: Oh Mr. Green Lantern, are you afraid? After helping me fight the Regime, After we joined that other lightning guy against some walking jack o lantern?

GL: I don't get afraid.

Joker: Oh, I think you do. I think we all do, it's all in that moment of discovery. When you're about to learn something you will never be able to unlearn. Something that puts all the pieces together, and you finally see the truth and your world changes. And you know it'll never go back the way it was before. But if you're so very brave, then just open the door.

**Back at the journal, as it shows Egypt in the present day**

Carter: You don't even realize when it happens. One minute you're following the clues, and the next, they're pulling you forward, dragging you. For years I studied Nth metal alone, trying to unlock the secrets of its abilities. What I came to understand was that it was conducting energy… Powerful energy from somewhere beyond my understanding. I dug deeper. Followed every clue I could find. Until one day, I got a glimpse. A glimpse of a story that began with the first men to walk the earth. Three tribes, or rather… Four. And something else. I was a part of something bigger. Something beyond my control. And I would do everything in my power to uncover what had been taken from me. The secret that stretched back to the dawn of my species. No matter what the cost.

**At the Arctic Circle, King is flying on Blue-Eyes, with John standing on the batwing, folding his arms, they land in the Fortress of Solitude**

John: Hm…

Batman: Clark, I know you're in there. Let me in.

**Superman (voiced by George Newbern) opens the door**

Superman: You know, It wouldn't kill you to say "please" every now and then.

Batman: I think it actually might.

**Using his X-Ray Vision, Superman see's something dodgy with his friend**

Superman: What's wrong, Bruce? You look worried. Your heart's racing.

Batman: I'm fine.

Superman: Bruce.

Batman: There's a room you gave me, years ago, deep under the fortress. I asked you never to look at what I put inside. I told you that the day will come when I would need to open that door and that I would have to walk through it alone.

Superman: And I never have. Not once. Bruce. If this is too big for you, I'm right here. You know that, don't you?

Batman: I do. Thank you, I do. It won't be long now. I'm not trying to keep people this time. I swear that's not what I'm doing. I just need to Understand what I'm looking at first.

Superman: I've seen that door, Bruce. There's nothing from this world that could open it.

**The two look and see that Mister Miracle (voiced by Joshua Tomar) has entered the Fortress**

Mister Miracle: I think that's why he called me.

**They head deep into the fortress**

Mister Miracle: You built a secret room at the top of the world with one door and a lock that no human could EVER unlock. What did you do to the key?

Batman: I shot it into the sun.

Mister Miracle: That's a joke, right? Right?

**They see a massive door**

Batman: Can you open it?

**Mister Miracle flies up to the door**

Mister Miracle: They don't call me Mister Miracle for nothing.

**He opens it, as dark electricity is unleashed, and (voiced by Roger Craig Smith) lands down**

Exe: It's about time you showed up, Bats.

Mister Miracle: Batman. That CAN'T be what I think it is. You can't have been stupid enough to hold onto-

Batman: Thank you, Scott. That will be all.

**The New God opens a boom tube**

Mister Miracle: Batman. Whatever has brought you here, you need to turn back now!

Batman: That will be all.

**Batman walks up the stairs, seeing the multiversal tuning fork, which is spewing out dark energy that Exe has been feeding off of to hold someone, or rather someTHING at bay**

Carter Hall: I wish I could go back to that moment and warn myself. I write this journal to pick up anyone foolish enough to pick up my trail. Whatever you do, do not follow in my footsteps.

Batman: Like a compass… Computer. Run all vibrational data through the tower. We should be able to track the exact dimensional frequency of the Dark Energy

Computer: Receiving Data…

Batman: It's time then… Time to see what's in the dark once and for all.

**Back at the Batcave, Hal and co. are going deeper into the cave, having just opened the door**

Carter Hall: I beg of you, whoever might be reading this, however many generations might have passed. Do not follow the mystery of the Metals. Some mysteries are best unsolved. Some doors best left unopened, because through them, all you'll find is horror.

Freddy: Batman, what the hell have you gotten yourself into this time…?

Joker: Oh, I can tell you that, Pizza Face. This is a mystery that stretches back to the dawn of time. It's bigger then all of us, and it sure as hell is bigger then you. You don't understand. All that was just a cruel joke. You're just another couple of pieces of Batman's puzzle. Just like me!

**Joker is writing numbers on the wall, before looking over his shoulder, laughing like the psycho he is**


	2. Chapter 2: The Casting

**Saint Ruth, USA, 1921, Hawkman and Hawkgirl are walking through a museum**

Carter Hall: In Cairo, they had called me an adventurer. In Athens, they called me a philosopher. But at my small museum in the quiet American cityof St. Roch in the first decades of the 20th century, I was an archaeologist. The job itself never changed. The human story is a mystery told by a billion unreliable narratiors I have been nothing more then a detective. The mission was always the sam. To carry forward the torch of discovery and reveal the secrets hiding in the darkest shadows. The truth buried deep beneath millennia of human memory. WE had found them over many lifetimes, lurking out of sight in human history, unchanging, all-seeing. We had long heard rumors of the Rhyming Demon of Camelot. Brothers who kept secrets and mysteries. The man as old as America. The grove of ancent humanoid plants. Of sorcerers, shining knights, cavemen and phantom strangers of all stripes. None had ever thoughtto bring them together. The Immortals. I told them what I now knew. That our lives did not begin in Egypt. That they began generations earlier. The dark priest Hath-Set, he had not cast us down this path of reincarnation. He had taken our pasts away from us. He e had obbscured the truth behind the metal we wore in our wings and belts in service of something darker than any mortal could comprehend. A figured stepped from the back. His voice was like the low rumble of thunder. He spoke of the metal that changed everything, and the terrible being that it brought forth. The being from beyond all our understanding. The being that was cast out, and sought desperately to return. To tear down all that was light in the world and drag it into the dark. And the truth would hit us like lightning

**A robed figure steped front, old as time itself, as he pulls out a dagger coursing with electricity**

Ms. Seward (Voiced by Carrie Kenagan): Al Ghul… DO you see what I see?

Ra's: Yes, Ms. Seward, I do.

**He opens a book, and electricty crackles forth, hitting them. Meanwhile, in Methana, Greece. John, with Vorse Raider out, and Batman, armed with a spear, is fighting a grypon, who has he upper hand, before a blast of fire seperates the two**

Wonder Woman (Voiced by Susan Einsenburg): Enough, Amphitrion. These humans fall under the protection of Themysira

**Amphitrion pads up to John… And nudges him**

John: Missed ya too. Buddy.

**Wonder Woman pets this beast, and it purrs**

Wonder Woman: I am certain those two were about to politely ask for safe passage to your patron's temple.

John: _I was going to do that next._

Wonder Woman: You should have called me, John, Bruce. This is not a part of the world any mortals should walk alone.

Batman: We promise you, Diana. We wouldn't have been here if it weren't absoultely nescessary.

John: Yeah, we're so god damned close to the answers. We need to make sense of all we've seen. We just need someone with a greater perspective. Somoene who was there when this was all set in motion.

Wonder Woman: How did you discover the entrance to this place?

Batman: I found a scroll from a death cult of smith workers buried in the alps, dating back to 200 AD. They described the treacherous path to the great forge of Hephaestus. They would throw themselves into the fire when they reached it. They would become the fuel of his creations themselves.

Wonder Woman: And that's what you wish, Bruce? Make yourself a sacrifice to the gods? There are easier ways.

Batman: Diana… I need to speak with him.

**Wonder Woman opens the door**

Wonder Woman: I'm sorry, Bruce… But you're too late. The gods have already abandoned earth. The had barred the gates of Olympus behind them.

**They then see Loki (Voiced by Alex Ross) look over at them**

Loki: Here's something I don't get. Why would they gun it and let us run rampent.

Neith (voiced by Lindsey Seidel): That's what I want to know.

**Neith and the other pantheon members are also here**

Wonder Woman: I shouldn't be telling any of you this. They believe a war is coming. A war that will not only shape the earth, but the cosmos themselves. A crisis that will shake the very Firmament and douse the light of creation. I can see it in all of your eyes too, the coming crisis. How would Neith know the thinking of other gods?

Bakasura (voiced by Bradford Jackson): Us demons know fear, Diana. Use your lasso if you think I'm hiding anything from you. We're not. The further we follow this mystery, the more frightened we all become. Every question leads to more questions.

John: Yeah. We hoped Hephaestus would be able to shine a light into the Darkness.

Wonder Woman: He may still. Before I came to the both of you, I had a vision. The great hound, war-form of Hephaestus, sat before me with eyes of fire and told me I would need to come here. And that I would need to give you this.

**Wonder Woman unsheathes the Sunblade, and hands it and the scabbard to John**

Wonder Woman: This is the Sunblade, John. It was created for Apollo at the dawn of human civilization. One of twelve weapons, created for each of the pantheon. Humans are not ment to know these weapons even exist. Let alone wield them. They were forged with the most powerful metals Hephaestus ever worked with. He called it the Eighth Metal. It is not the pure form you seek. But if you follow its light, it will guide you where you need to go.

John: The Eighth…

**John takes the blade, examining it**

Wonder Woman: Mark my words, John. The pantheons have given you the sun to light your way. Do not throw it away for the Darkness. And most of all, be wary of the pantheons. They have their own agendas.

John: So do I.

**John sheaths it in the style of the samurai and holsters it on his belt**

Batman: There's something beginning in the world, and somehow, I found myself at its center. It's as though I can hear a message calling out from the shadows, but the more I try to listen, the more it sounds like laughter

**Back at the batcave, Freddy and the others are glaring at the Joker**

Joker: Hehehehehehehe. Do you see the big picture yet, Freddy-boy or do I have to spell it all out for you in plain letters?

Freddy: We've listen to enough of your insanity, Joker. There isn't a single reason we should trust a god damned word you say. Just thinking about Batman locking you away down here for god knows how long.

Duke: Trust me, Freddy, GL, guys. I'm going to have a talk with Batman when he gets back.

Joker: Why so angry, Duke? Is it because you're the Also-Ran? The Not-Good-Enough-To-Get-The-Real-Job Robin? Or is it because the last time I saw you I poisoned your parents past the brink of sanity and tried to have them shot right in front of your impressionable eyes?

**Duke blows a gasket**

Duke: I'll… I'll fucking hurt you!

GL: Get back, Duke. You don't want to screw with that energy field

**He lunges but gets shocked by the field, as Joker laughs**

Joker: HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! See, I haven't had fun like this in AGES! That's how it all started you know. A bit of fun. I cut off my face and thought I'd kill his whole family. You know how it is, get rid of the kids and rekindle the romance. The old flame. But it turns out he LIKES the brat, so there I was, tumbling down into the dark of the deepest corner of the Batcave. And SPLASH! I must admit, I thought I was a goner, until I woke up in the dark, and this shimmering green metal was running all over me, stitching me back together. Putting my face back just right. And then I saw it, towering over me. A marking on the wall. Older then Gotham, older then civilization. The bat behind the bat.

**It shows in sepra, the Joker, bare as can be, from behind, looking up and seeing a cave painting of a massive bat, before fast forwarding to the present**

Joker: I needed to know more, and there were people, they knew… The Owls knew. That lunatic crazy quilt knew. You see? It was all a great conspiracy. The pieces planted for generations. Birds had become bats, Light had become dark, sanity has become insanity. It was coming, I could feel it in me . Even when I wasn't myself, I could still feel it in my head. An echo in the shadows calling the real me back to the surface. I'm sure you know what I mean, Duke. You must've felt it, too. You're probably feeling it now. That pesky little force field is reacting strangely to your body, don't you think?

**Duke screams in pain**

Freddy: You did this! I don't know how you knew-

**Freddy and the others get knocked down as Joker breaks free from his prision**

Joker: THEN YOU'RE NOT LISTENING! It's still in me. It's in you. It's all around us. I just needed to create a circuit to escape, and you did the job wonderfully.

Freddy: N-No… Won't let… You get free.

Bat Computer: Defense measures activating. Cutting power to sub-cave alpha. Smile protocol in effect

**As the cave goes dark, Joker unsheathes his knife**

Joker See? The dark is coming. HA!

Freddy: Greenie, light up the room! We can't let him get away!

GL: Damnit, I can't! Ring's still shorting out. I don't know what the hell is happening.

Joker: Oh, I know how this story is going to end, because it all happened before!

**Back in the 20's, the two are seen walking through a cave, which shows a painting of a massive bat shaped figure**

Cater Hall: The Immortals spoke of the tribes at the dawn of man. The arrival of the strange metal that would change everything, brought to this world by a tear in the fabric of Reality, and the demon that rose from the dark and nearly conquered us all. At first, we didn't believe. The scale of what they were telling us was too huge, too frightening. We set out to confirm their story, to find any evidence that it was all a lie. But instead, we found countless paintings on every continent, hidden in the deepest cave system. All telling the same dark story. They spoke of the Hawk Tribe, where my story had truly begun, though I did not remember it. They spoke of the betrayal by the Judas of the birds, who sided with the demon.

**They see another painting of a bird getting stabbed by several batlike figures, as it shows a red sky and a throne made of skulls as a massive bat figure is seen slouching on the throne**

Carter Hall: The demon who took the sigil of the great and terrible bat. The plague bringer. The scourge of mankind.

**Back at the cave**

Carter Hall: My wife and I, we died fighting it back from the dark when it came. Shuttering the door between its word and ours.

**It shows Hath-Set ready to kill both Hawk Tribe member**s

Carter Hall: That was the truth Hath-Set severed us from by recreating the scene millennia later. He, the emissary of the same dark forces that nearly fell humanity before it could begin.

**Back to the 20's, Carter and his wife are embracing each other, crying**

Carter Hall: Birds and Bats, Forever at war. The Immortals told us the metal was cursed. It needed to be eliminated, as its power came from the same darkness that begat this great destroyer, but this strange metal. It had been so much more to us. It had brought us wonders, brought us wings, and countless lives. I knew I had to understand more. I needed to see the place from which the power came from.

**It shows Challenger's Mountain, a few months prior to our heroes coming back together**

Carter Hall: It took decades to build the technology we needed. We recruited adventures form around the world who shared our values, our certainty that the nature of the cosmos was benevolent. We wouldn't allow ourselves to be beaten down by the unknown. We would challenge it.

**The crew walk in wearing purple spacesuits, ready for anything**

Carter Hall: We would challenge it.

**it show's the Dagger of Shazam**

Carter Hall: The Wizard's knife gave us the power we needed to chart ore way into the darkness. We were ready to understand the true nature of things, ourselves and the worlds around us.

**Shiera's hand is with Carter's**

Carter Hall: I remember Shiera's hand in mine, holding tight as the switch was flipped.

**The earth trembles REALLY loudly**

Carter Hall: Then I remember the earth shaking as if it had been torn apart. And the screaming

**Screams can be heard as fiendish imps roar out, alongside Spear Cretians and Molton Zombies, who maul everything in sight**

Carter: As I stared into the darkness where Challengers Mountain once stood, I felt a chill down my spine…

**It showed a massive, 3-eyed face staring right. At. Them**

Carter Hall: And I saw the eyes of something great and terrible starring back at the me through the abyss. Eyes, waiting in the dark. Waiting for something. Someone.

**At the Sonodran Desert, in Arizona, John cuts a hunk of rock down, looking for something**

Batman: Computer, access the shadow drive. Record new audio fire. I feel like I'm running out of time. Sixty miles from the coast of greece, the Sunblade began to vibrate in reaction to an unknown source that has lead me here. To a secret bace of unknown origin deep under the Sonoran Desert, searchign for answers, and all I find are more mysteries. Send an alert to Black Lightning. I'll need the outsiders to scour the surroundings and-

**Dubbilex (Voiced by Garry Mack) walks out**

Dubbilex: Batman, you must turn back

Batman: Dubbilex? This is a Cadmus base?

Dubbilex: No, Batman. That is what it WAS. What it has become is far darker. The DNA Project had tracked the beings with it in their blood. And they began to activate them with a power source they did not understand.

John: What are you saying? What caused this?

Dubbilex: The metal you seek is cursed, you two. The energy in it is roiling and dark. Everything it touches, it corrupts. See for yourself the damage it has wrought.

**He creates a psychic vision, but he clutches his head in pain**

Dubbilex: Too… Weak… Cannot hold the psychic projection… You must turn back now, before it corrupts you two as well… I can feel its grip tightening on you both…

John: You need to tell me where this metal is. I need to see what's coming!

Dubbilex: No, red demon… Run…

**He goes limp as Talia Al Ghul, Batman's former flame and mother of Damien Wayne (Voiced by Stana Katic) struts up**

Talia: He fought so bravely to prevent me from taking my birthright. I almost pitty the creature. Hello, "Beloved".

Batman: It's been a long time since "Beloved." What are you doing here, Talia?

Talia: The same thing as you, I suppose. You seek something of great power, and it eludes your grasp. But nothing eludes the grasp of the demon, Bruce.

Batman: What does Ra's Al Ghul know, Talia?

Talia: At the dawn of the 20th century, my father and his ilk came together to discuss a great mystery. One of them produced a powerful dagger made from the strange metal you seek. My father spent decades trying to reacquire it. He ultimately succeeded, picking it from the ruins of a private military base in the Rocky Mountains. He supposed the right people would pay good money to tap into its power.

John: So, you've come to do your old man's bidding.

Talia: No, Johnathan. There have been secret battles to suppress the power of this metal for decades. But its power has only grown with time, tainting more and more. True war is now inevitable. My beloved knows this. He has one of the potentials living under his roof. I came for the knife to ready myself for war. It darkens day by day, its terrible power growing.

Batman: We've heard rumblings. Leviathan moving against you… The great assassin you've brought back into the fold.

Talia: You have nothing to fear from the silencer, Bruce. Nor from me.

John: Talia, what if we could offer you a trade. The eighth form of the metal for the ninth.

Talia: You would trade light for darkness? You would give me the power of a god?

John: The multiverse is at a moment of great imbalance. We help the mother of Damian, the daughter of the Demon's Head, so that should the moment come where we need to call upon her for a greater favor… Perhaps she'll answer.

Talia: Very well. They say you can hear the name of the wizard who forged the dagger when you hold it in your hand.

**She gets out the Lightning Dagger** **and hands it to the Red Demon, who sheaths it in a thigh holster just big enough to fit it**

Talia: That it carries a small piece of his great power. The power of Shazam

**Meanwhile, at the darknened batcave**

Freddy: We need light, dammit!

GL: I'm trying

**They hear clanging and crashing as Joker destroys the Final Invention with a crowbar**

Duke: Joker, show yourself!

Joker: I can't let him dig anny deeper. There's no telling what will happen next if he does. He doesn't understand how important he is, not like I do.

Freddy: What the hell is that thing?

Duke: It's some kind of machine.

GL: I don't get it, Joker. Where's the joke in all of this?

Joker: This isn't funny!

Gl: Get away from- AAAAGH!

**his ring goes haywire again as Joker cracks him in the jaw with his crowbar, sending blood and teeth on the cave floor**

Joker: Don't you understand?! This is what your alien bosses and Kruger's spider boss sent you here to stop. If he uses that machine, that'll be the end of everything

Duke: NO!

**As Duke tackles the clown prince of crime, Lantern comes tumbling down**

Joker: Oh Duke. I can see why you're so angry. You've never quite fit in here, have you? No matter how much Batman pretends you belong like the giant penny or the T-Rex, there's something different about you.

**Duke cracks him right in the jaw with a right hook**

Duke: Shut up!

Joker: Aren't you curious? Isn't there a part of you that wants to know why Batman picked you? Why I picked you? Did you know, at Gotham Mercy Hospital, there's an automatic flag that goes up when something unusual is detected in a blood sample? It's a kind of metal toxicity. But they really track any of the effects, because it sure as hell isn't iron. It's not even mercury. The first doctor to put that flag up, the program only gave him four characters to designate the flag, but he did the best he could. And I've seen that file for both you AND your mom. M-E-T-A.

**Joker tosses his crowbar, stunning Duke**

Joker: And Batman's been tracking as many of you as he can for years now. Don't you see? A whole new generation of superheroes and super-villains! The soldiers of the war that will rip the multiverse apart! Tell the computer to pull up the Meta-file sometime. You can see them all for yourself. People with that crazy metal running through their veins. You've seen what it can do in other forms. Can you IMAGINE what it does to people? What am I saying? Of COURSE you can. I know the truth, duke. I know what you are here to do. You'll let him see in the dark. That's all you are, duke. That's the role you're destined to play.

**Joker unsheathes his knife and begins to push the blade into Duke's throat, hoping to hit the spinal cord**

Joker: You are the signal, and I can't allow that. So I'm going to have to kill you now.

**Duke kicks him, disarming him and sending Joker reeling**

Duke: No… I won't let you…

**He falls, screaming as Joker shakes the cobwebs out, before looking around for Duke and smirking**

Joker: And the signal goes dark. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

**Joker turns his attention back to the final invention**

Joker: And now to write the grand finale to this whole sordid tale, so we can go back to the good stuff. Bats and clowns, not bats and birds. This whole thing has gone on long enough

GL: You're damn right, Joker.

Joker: Huh?

**He hears a rumbling as the Batwing flies up with Hal in the cockpit**

GL: There's something you probably should've known before you knocked me into Bats' underground hangar. I'm a decorated member of the United States Air Force. Your story time is over!

Joker: No!

**Freddy, who is on the opposite wing, knees Joker hard, and as the two fight, the voice of Carter Hall continues to explain the journal**

Carter Hall: There was a time I believed that the world got better every time we solved one of the great mysteries. When we mastered a law of nature with our wit and our science, I felt like we were marching onward and upward. Toward the kind of utopia of science and wonder that first captured my imagination when I saw the Thanagarian ship crashing in my life as Khufu. They were scientists we would discern. We thought that they came bearing gifts and knowledge

**Freddy lifts Joker up and sends him flying into Jason, who holds Joker steady as Freddy readies his claws, and slashes at his face twice**

Carter Hall: Now I know the reason why they brought the Nth metal here. They came to warn us of what they KNEW was on the other side.

**As Freddy goes to work on his stomach with his razor sharp claws, Joker smashes Jason with his crowbar, and smashes Freddy in the stomach with his weapon of choice, causing the dream demon to vomit blood**

Carter Hall: They didn't come to help us move forward into the light. They were here to stop us in our tracks, so the universe would never fall prey to the ambitions of a small world that even milennia later can barely get past its own moon.

**Jason gets up, his mask partially cracked from the force of the blow before he walks slowly forward with his hand outstretched, seizing the jester of genocide by the neck. He then plunges the blade of his machete up through the chin and skull of the pale psycho, then forces the handle up, snapping his neck backward. He rips the machete out and stabs the opponent in the abdomen, breaking their spine and several ribs. He retracts the blade after, causing the opponent to fall to the ground. Before lifting him up in a military press, before flinging him aside, causing him to tumble down**

Carter Hall: This is the final entry in my journal. I believe I have found a way to penetrate the barrier of our reality and enter the dark myself.

**Leatherface lands down in front of Joker, growling and revving his chainsaw before charging in like a wildman, and Joker raises his crowbar to defend himself, causing sparks to fly from the weapons**

Carter Hall: I still believe, in my heart, that there is wonder and hope out there in the unknown, at the center of all this incredible power, but that hope seems more foolish with every passing day. I feel the encroaching darkness planting doubt deep in my soul

**Joker disarms Leatherface of his weapon of choice and cracks the southern cannibal in the jaw, sending him spinning to the ground as Jason jumps down, before charging in with a clothsline that turns Joker inside out, and sends him sprawling down to the ground**

Carter Hall: The others, even my wife, believe that the mystery is and has always been a trap. A trap dragging us into nightmares, begging us to let those nightmares free and destroy our world. And it is true. Our enemy has grown stronger the ni ever could have imagined. They keep killing my spies as I get closer to determining their plans.

**Joker stabs his crowbar into Jason's leg and goes to stab at him, but the Crystal Lake Killer lifts Joker up by the throat and chokeslams him down to the ground**

Carter Hall: I've done my best to avert their endgame. I am entrusting this journal, and the terrible secrets to the family that has always been most loyal to the birds . With the command to hide it unless I fail and the beast comes again. Then and only then will the journal reveal itself.

**Leatherface staggers up to his chainsaw to block a strike from Joker and strikes them with his mallet before he hits the opponent first with the end of his chainsaw, then impales Joker in the chest, breaking several ribs and his sternum. While the opponent is still on the chainsaw, Leatherface uses his mallet and strikes it onto the back of his opponent's skull, completely destroying it. Finally, Leatherface stomps onto the back of the clown prince's body, driving their body deeper into the chainsaw, breaking the spine. He then pulls it out effortlessly, as Joker limps off, to the machine**

Carter Hall: They know how important this is. That they must stay far from the dark and frighening truth lurking under the world, trying to force itself through.

**Freddy gets up and jumps down into the melee, turning into his worm form from Dream Warriors, and chomping at his arm before flinging Joker aside and going back to normal, before dream shifting in front of him and Freddy slashes his psychotic adversary with an uppercut then stabs him in the chest with his glove. He then follows up with a sucker punch that breaks his opponent's jaw before slashing his face with his glove, shattering their skull, before doing an Irish whip right to Jason, who does an pop-up Death Valley Driver, before Hal pins him down with the Batwing**

Carter Hall: I stand with my torch, facing the dark. I believe I will find something out there. A glimmer of potential. But I know that I am likely wrong. That all I will find is the darkness itself. I walk toward my end alone, so that no man could ever be foolish enough to follow.

Joker: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Freddy: What's so funny? We outnumber you 5 to one and my boys and I just beat you to a bloody pulp?

Joker: It's happening again! No matter what I do, it just keeps on coming! Everythign is going backwards, and any of you don't understand! You don't even realize that this time, I'M trying to be the good guy! A dark crisis is coming and here you are, two bright burning lights calling it forward!

**Duke holds his head in anguish**

Duke: Guys… Something's wrong…

Joker: I mean, COME ON! How is that NOT funny!?

Duke: It's like I can feel something getting closer…

Joker: All the pieces are connected, and the puzzle always comes together in the form of a bat!

Duke: No… NOOOOO!

**A blinding light erupts from Duke, forcing Hal, Jason, Freddy and Leatherface to shield their eyes as he falls off**

Freddy: Duke!

**Jason lands down and catches him in a firemans carry before setting him down against some rocks**

Hal: The Joker… Where did he-

Batman: Jordan, Kruger, Voorhees, Sawyer! What the hell did you four do to my cave?

Freddy: Oh great, it's ol Spooky… What did HE do to your cave?! That part was the Joker's fault, me, Oinky and Hockey Puck were busy beating him to a bloody pulp!

Batman: You let him out, Kruger? Do you have any idea-

Freddy: How many justice league bylaws you're breaking for locking up one of the most dangerous loons in the multiverse in your BASEMENT without telling anyone? Yeah, Bats, we do.

Batman: I needed him.

GL: For what? To fill every gap in this insane conspiracy theory with lies? Secret metals with incredible power shaping human history? I mean, come one! And based on what you told the league, you can't even be sure that was the real Joker!

**Freddy dreamports both him and Batman to his realm, for a little private chat**

Freddy: Batman, I need you to explain what the hell is going on here.

Batman: I've spent a long time putting these pieces together. Finding what I need to look back into the dark.

**Katherine Kruger (voiced by Stephanie Sheh), Freddy's daughter, jumps down from a nearby catwalk**

Katherine: Back?

Batman: I called it my Final Invention. It was designed to hel ensure this city would always have a batman. But before it was finished, I died at the hands of the Joker and that would've been the end of my story, if not for the metal. If not for the Dionesium, I would have lost my life, not just my memory. Ultimately, I used it the machine to reconstitute myself. But the metal was still nestled in the cracks in my skull. And when the machine activated… I saw something impossible. Impossible versions of myself, dying over and over again.

**It shows various incarnations of the batman dying grusome deaths over and over again**

Freddy: Jeez, that's fucked up.

Katherine: You can say that again, dad.

Batman: Nothing in the machine I built could have given me those visions. It was in the metal. This incredible, powerful metal. This metal I couldn't escape in any facet of my life. As thought it were targeting me, over and over for some unknown reason. As though it wanted me to understand it. I began to rebuild the machine from the ground up. I wanted to look inside the dark, to the source of the metal's power. I knew that once I did , it would all come together. It would all make sense.

**Freddy lifts Batman into the air with his telekinesis, and moves him until he's eye to eye**

Freddy: Whatever you've been doing in there caught the attention of the Entity as well as the Guardains, Batman.

Batman: And doesn't that give you and Hal pause? Why would two guys from a back water part of the multiverse doing a little bit of archaeology require interference from the essence of despair and intergalactic peacekeepers? Why does his ring, the most powerful weapon in the multiverse, cower in the face of a pure strain of this strange, impossible metal?

Freddy: Kathie, we're taking a little trip to the Batcave.

**Freddy summons a boiler and the 3 head in**, **where GL and Duke see Katherine**

Duke: So that's his kid? I see no family resemblance, though the Joker said you brought me in… To study me like some kind of experiment.

Batman: The Joker lies, Duke, I never tried to shape you. I only wanted to be there when you decided what your were going to become.

**Batman gets out the lightning Dagger**

Batman: This was supposed to be the end of all of this. I have the dimensional frequencey of the energy locked, and with this dagger, I have the power to see the truth at the heart of this mystery.

**Duke's eyes glow**

Duke: Woah… That dagger. It's doin' something to me. It's like , I can see the whole machine still together, made of light. I see where this belongs, how it all fits together. I can see where the light was. I don't know how to explain.

**They see the machine, and where it was**

Duke: The joker said this would happen. How could he know?

Freddy: Hal, I know this makes ya feel off and all. But the night is getting blacker every minute, and this evil is FAR out of our sight.

GL: Yeah, sweaterguy, I know my oath.

**GL hands Duke a rental ring**

GL: All right, kid. This duplicate ring's just a loaner, okay? And if what I've been going through today is any indication, this is going to hurt. A lot.

**Duke puts the ring on**

GL: You need to put all of yourself, all your willpower, into that ring, and show us what you see.

**Duke, fighting through the pain, sees more artifacts**

Duke: Woah, Batman. It's all here. Psycho Pirate's mask, the owl's Electrum…

Batman: Hyper-Elastic molecules. Ancient Themyscairan and Atlantean artifacts. Relics of order and chaos. Together, with your help, duke, they will show me the way.

Freddy: Whatever you see in there, Bruce, I'm telling the Entity. If this shit can affect Hal's ring, there's no telling how powerful it could be.

Batman: I understand, Freddy. And thank you.

**Freddy vanishes into flames, alerting the Entity as Carter's voice can be heard again**

Carter Hall: There is a feeling you get at the end of an adventure.

**Batman puts the dagger into the final portal**

Carter Hall: You feel it in the anxious quickening of your heart. In every tenative footstep you take. It's the fear of what you've done to bring you to that point. The knowledge that whatever mistakes you've made are yours to own from here to eternity

**Batman walks up to the machine, and grips the bars**

Carter Hall: It is the knowledge that there is no way back.

**Batman screams in anguish as he sees into the darkness**

Carter Hall: At the beginning, your story burned white hot with possibility. You felt the fire in your veins. The need to know. To explore. To understand. And more then that, the knowledge that you can chart your own course toward the greater knowledge. That you, and only you, control your destiny. But with every step forward, your story cooled and hardened. Pulling you inexorable toward a singular ending. An ending you can no longer choose. An ending that chooses you. From the journal of Carter Hall

**Batman falls limp, unconcious**

Duke: Bruce!

GL: Bruce, what did you see?

Batman: Darkness…

Duke: What?

Batman: I don't understand, I did everything right, but all I saw was darkness.

**Meanwhiel, 3000 miles below Gotham, silloettes of the arch enemies of the Sperg Crew are seen convening. One of them (Vocied by Robert Englund) steps out from the shadows, his glasses gleaming against the lava, his coat and hat blowing in the dark wind, this was Samuel Townsend, the Nightmare of Blackhollow**

Samuel: It is done. He has stared into the abyss and we have hidden what lies within.

**Another one (Voiced by Clancy Brown) walks up, a wolfen figure with armor and a mask walks up with several cultists behind him, this was Don Phobos, leader of the the Neo-Makuu Crime Syndicate**

Don Phobos: The final seal is broken. After all these generations, the sacrifice is at hand.

**Another one (voiced by Dan Green) wearing demonic armor with a visor that looks not to dissimilar to a certain heroes glasses. This was Velhallen Beo, the monsterous dark side of Ben, son of Cetrion**

Beo: Let us see them. Let us see what he SHOULD have seen, if our benefactor had not prepared him correctly.

**Two more, a human with Nanites and a massive pink tounged demon (Voiced by Alistar Duncan and D.C. Douglas respectively) walk up, these were Steven Armstrong and Kamoshida**

Kamoshida: The dark days are over.

Armstrong: The Dark Knights are coming!

**Finally, two suited shadows walk up along side a Kytin (voiced by Garrett Hunter, Doug Bradley and Kelly Hu respective ly walk up), these were Adam Taurus, leader of the Faunus terrorist group, the White Fang, Satan, leader of the Los Diablos group and mortal enemy of God, and D'vorah, the traitorous adviser of Kotal Khan. Finally one last shadow steps front, a monsterous shadow (Voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) weilding a deadly blade, this was Zorc, the leader of the Fiend Army **

Zorc: And with them, the true father of Batman.

**All of them let out a ominous cackle**


	3. Chapter 3: The Invasion Begins

**50,000 years ago, A lizard is running through the desert sands, over 3 symbols, one of the Wolf, another of the Bear, and one more for the Bird**

Carter Hall: Lost to history is a story. A story of how, in these lands, during the Age of Stone, there were three great tribes of man. Tribe of the Wolf, of the Bear and of the Bird. All were nomadic, and shared a grand dream, a dream of discovery.

**A batlike silhouette hovers over**

Carter: But soon, a forth tribe rose. A dark tribe unlike the others. One of twisted dreams, turned inside out.

**Blood splatters on the runes from Liu Kang fighting Shang Tsung in the First Mortal Kombat tornament, as well as Sub Zero killing Scorpion, only for Scorpion to come back to get his revenge**

Carter Hall: And so with its terrible rise, so began the age...Of Metal

**2019, The Justice League, armed with armor and weapons provided by Mongol (Voiced by Keith David) having just taken down monsters**

Mongul: Behold! Your mighty Justice League. Mighty… HA! What deat design should they face next? Something special, eh?

Batman: It doesn't make any sense. Mongul was being kept under watch by the Braalians after his fight with General Zod. How he built a new War Moon…

Superman: Focus, Batman. What we need to do is figure a way out of here.

Wonder Woman: What we need to do is win.

Mongul: Just look at them. Hobbled so easily! Made weak by the very armor I fastened to them!

**As the League realizes their predictament, Kronika is observing the hourglass, noticing something is awry**

Ben (Voiced by Tom Holland): Grandma, what's wrong?

Kronika (voiced by Jennifer Hale): It's my hourglass, the timeline where Shao Khan won… It's being corrupted by something, as if something is forcing its way through.

John (voiced by Todd Haberkorn): That's not good

**Back at the War World**

Mongul: Take note, friends! All you need is the dust of a few thousand crushed red suns, Some Vibranium Domination Boots from our friends the Dominators, A lock from Stheno, the elder gorgon, Venom Infused, a few more trinkets for the rest, and suddenly these "Heroes" are forced to fight for real, eh? So what shall they battle? Let's ask my favorite resident slave, Mr. Hiro, the Toyman. Now speak up, boy! What comes through my gates?

Toyman (voiced by Ken Jeong): I call it Fulcum Abdomius.

**Mongol lets out a hearty laugh**

Mongul: Fulcum Abominus. I LOVE IT! And now, my friends. It's that time! Time… Too…

**With a chant from the crowd of "Go to war! Go to war", machines lumber up from the gates**

Mongul: Yes! War! So enter, Fulcum Abominus!

Flash (Voiced by Talisen Jaffe): And we're fucked…

Wonder Woman: League! Aegea Formation! Now!

**They take a battle formation and fight these machines, getting trounced**

Mongul: Ha! Look at them! Hoping to escape Mongul's pit! What do we say to THAT?!

**The crowd chant "Do not run! Pain is fun!"**

Mongol: Now, let the battle BEGIN!

Batman: Cyborg, can you hack their-

Cyborg (Voiced by Khary Payton): Already tried, Thye're each built to our specific-

**Victor Stone, the Cyborg, gets sent flying by a laser**

GL: Aquaman, we need these wheel chocks off! This gauntlet's micro black hole is killing my ring's- WOAH! **he dodges a fireball**

Aquaman: I'm at half strength, too, Green Lantern. These blasted sleeves… Some kind of Pit Glass from the fires of Apokolips… The heat. Wonder Woman, Maybe the beasts… Can be tricked into breaking this armor off of us!

**Aquaman winces in pain**

Wonder Woman: Well, mine has a Cassandra Engine. Every move I make… Superman, can you...?

Superman: Already trying! No go! They avoid the armor and go for the flesh.

**He charges, dodging gunfire, wincing in pain**

Wonder Woman: Still, they're just machines! They HAVE to have a weakness! Everyone. Back in formation while we strategize! Iphito this time!

**Batman winces in pain**

Batman: Affirmative back to… Formation. Hmmm.

Wonder Woman: Batman, formation! What are you-

Batman: Playing a hunched! That's right! Come on! Open up you piece of…

**The machine opens wide as Batman smirks**

Batman: Heh! Everyone! Follow my lead!

Flash: YOUR lead?! But-

Batman: Just do it, Flash!

**Batman reaches for a button**

Batman: Come on, come on, Come…

**he presses it**,** and tendrils erupt out and put Batman in**

Flash: Either we help him, or he's gonna need your old harpoon hand, We have to move now! I'm too slow with these boots but I'll cover you

Aquaman: Alright, Going in Three, two on-

Batman: NO! I said **winces** Follow my lead, damnit. There are symbols inside the mouths. Activate them now, however you can

Aquaman: And then?

Batman: You let them eat you!

Wonder Woman: You heard him! Then let them… Wait, WHAT?

**They smash the symbols and tendrils wrap around them and bring them in**

GL: See, THIS is why we vote on strategy!

Cyborg: Good plans? They don't hurt this much. IT's tearing into my- GAH!

Batman: Quiet, Cyborg. Listen to me. Be calm, let it happen. It's all in the name. Fulcum Abominus. Abdominus, like something that defies the order of things. And Fulcum from the late Roman period. A warrior formation cry made from deep in the throat. A call to lock shields. Toyman was giving us a clue. His way out of this, a trick he played on Mongul.

Flash: What trick?! Why are these things absorbing us?

Wonder Woman: I know this cry. It means "Come together as one"

GL: Come together as one WHAT? Metal?!

Aquaman: One warrior.

Superman: Bruce, please tell me you're kidding.

Cyborg: Heh. Please tell me you're NOT?! Becuase if what your saying is what I think you're saying…

Batman: The crowd wants war… LET'S GIVE THEM WAR

Cyborg: Booyah!

**Mongul sees a… Justice League mega mech. Yes, dear reader, you read that right.**

Mongul: No… Not now!

**Mongul high tails it out of there**

Batman: Aw, look at Mongul, trying to run. What do we say to that?

**Another "Do not run! Pain is fun!" chant erupts from the crowd**

Flash: Wait, why do I have to be the FOOT?

Batman: Simple, Barry, so you can kick his ass.

**And the DO kick Mongul's ass and get the hell out of there**

Batman: Get ready, Atmosphere approaching in thirty seconds.

GL: You DO know you're not flying that thing? Right?

Flash: I liked that little strike I dropped.

Both Aquaman and WW: And that's why I choose to ride outside the ship in cold, dead, space.

Superman: Batman, what you said about the Braalians, you're right. They wouldn't lose track of Mongul, unless something seismic was going on. Does this have anything to do with what you've been investigating? With why you came to the Fortress? What happened in the cave? Batman? Bruce?

**Batman says nothing**

Superman: Hey, listen, I know you've been going through a lot lately. If you want to-

Batman: I'm not ready.

Superman: Fine, just know that-

Batman: I wasn't talking to you, Clark. All right, ready now. Connection secure? What is it?

Alfred (voiced by Martin Jarvis): Sir! Thank god. I've been using every possible line of communication-

Batman: Slow down, Alfred, what happened?

Alfred: It's Gotham, sir.

Batman: What about Gotham?

**Alfred, the ever loyal servant of the Bat-family, is seen looking at a massive moutain that erupted from underground with the Sperg Crew's arch nemesis on top, with dark energy pouring out, as well as dark purple lightning strikes**

Alfred: I'm… I'm afraid you're going to have to see it for yourself. A mountain, a bloody mountain in the middle of-

Batman: Start from the beginning, Alfred.

Alfred: There was some kind of… energy storm in the city center… Dark Lightning everywhere. They evacuated the area and then… Then the city, it seemed to make room to create space and then this… This mountain appeared. How are we ever going to… The devastation!

**Batman lands on the rubble that was once the street**

Batman: I'm standing in it. Scramble the family. Batman out.

**They look around the rubble and see the Sperg Crew, now with Chris William, the Master Archfiend (voiced by Lucien Dodge) and Ben alongside the others**

John: Batman, you saw it, right? That mountain?

Wonder Woman: John, We're all tapped into the Watchtower's warning system. Whatever this is, there's no way you could've known the signs alongside Bruce.

John: There are always signs, Diana. We just didn't see them yet.

GL: Guys, the energy coming off that mountain!

Freddy: Yeah, I see it, Greenie. It's like what ya felt from that machine back in the cave.

Aquaman: The stone is not volcanic. It didn't come from beneath the surface. That mountain came from somewhere else.

**Kronika summons sand portals, where the likes of Doomsday, Lobo, and others head up**

Predator: Whatever it is, Aquaman. it's hollow. My scans detect a bunker of some kind. Ber-

Flash: Already on it, ugly!

**Flash blitzes past**

Flash: Doordoordoor.

**Flash sees a big door**

Flash: Whoa. Big door.

**Reverse Flash (Voiced by Liam O'Brien) walks** **up**

Reverse Flash: I'd say…

**Flash sees the yellow speedster and shakes it off**

Flash: Vic, I'm sending you the image.

Cyborg: Got it, Berry. I've run it over a thousand times already, but it keeps coming up unknown.

GL: Man, look at all this. What is this, some kind of laboratory?

**Kojin Shinigami, the wild card of the sperg crew, walks with the others**

Kojin: I'd like to think so. Most of this tech is not from this year, but is pretty advanced for it's time.

Ben: If you think that's nuts, Lantern's right. This whole place is crackling with that same energy he told grandma about from the cave.

Cyborg: Yeah. And my sensors can't quantify it, it's like off the electromagnetic spectrum

Kojin: English please?

John: What Vic is saying is that we don't know what the hell we're facing. And why it brought our greatest enemies together.

Aquaman: Maybe there are answers inside that. Look.

**They see a space pod**

Cyborg: Huh, that's titanium alloy. Must be some kind of space pod.

GB: But there's no engines for flying. Which begs the question I'm asking… What the hell is this place?

**They head inside**

WW: This must be the core. I can feel the energy coming off it myself.

Superman: Me too.

John: My god, there's people in there. Five of em. And… They're alive? In some kinda

cryochamber. We have to-

Batman: Wait. Cyborg is right. The readings here are troubling. We have to know what this place is first

**They investigate the craft**

Cyborg: Guys, this energy… It's scarring me. Hal said he felt something like that in the cave?

Kojin: This is wayyyyyy worse, Vic. It's-

Cyborg: Getting stronger by the second. I can feel it.

**GB sees Red Tornado (Voiced by Corey Burton) in sleep mode, in a way**

GB: Vic, look.

**Cyborg sees the android in question**

Cyborg: This android. If I can activate him, we might be able to find out what's going on here and where these guys have been.

John: Yeah? Well whatever it was…

**John sees "It's chasing us, run!" written in blood**

John: It wasn't good. Look.

**The others see it, before they see guns pointed at them**

Lady Blackhawk: Stop! You there!

**The Sperg Crew get their summon devices ready**

Lady Blackhawk: Step away from the C-Pod! Now!

Josh (Firecracker and voiced by Vic Mignogna): And just who the hell are you?

Batman: She's called Lady Blackhawk. She runs the Blackhawks, some kind of damn covert anti-apocalyptic team. They've been watching me. I've been watching them, learning their secrets.

Lady Blackhawk: Believe Me. There's Plenty you still don't know

John: And why should we listen to you?

Lady Blackhawk: Becuase I'm not just Lady Blackhawk, Red Demon. My name is Kendra Saunders. And you don't know me, but I know all of you. So I need you to come with me now.

King: Come with you? COME WITH YOU?! There's a bloody city outside. Broken. Thousands of people terrified. You can't hear them, but the boy scout can!.

Josh G.: Besides, how do we know this isn't the start of something bigger?

Lady Blackhawk: It IS, Josh. This is the first shot fired of a full scale invasion. One that's been planned for centuries.

GB: By who?

Lady Blackhawk: I won't speak the name here. It's too dangerous. For the city, maybe for the whole multiverse, but if you come with me, I'll show you everythign I know.

**At the south pacific, Nami and co, see the Sperg Crew, and the JLA**,** where Raiden (Voiced by Richard Epcar) explains to the league and the Sperg Crew**

Raiden: There are places in the realms that lie outside the normal maths of things. Some exist at what mortals call "phantom frequencies", spots where cosmic energy conducted through the earth's metal core cancels itself out, creates a kind of static that disrupts space-time. A hidden pocket, some are magic-induced, some are naturally occurring. Dinosaur Island, Themyscira, Skartaris, Nanda Parbat, and this place, a refuse for the forces of light. Blackhawk Island.

**Superman walks up to the god of thunder**

Superman: Raiden, Blackhawk spoke of an invasion. She promised to tell us who was behind it. Every minute we spend in this place.

Raiden: This place is our only hope, Superman. For many years, it was a base of operations for a great detective of history. A hero named Carter Hall. Hawkman.

John: What?

Lady Blackhawk: Our story sounds crazy, but thousands of years ago, we were stabbed with a dagger with a mysterious substanced and entered a cycle of reincarnation the spanned history. For many lives, we fought together as partners, protecting the multiverse from evil, but Carter never stopped searching for answers about the material that started the whole cycle

Shao Khan (voiced by Ike Amandi): What are you on about, woman?

Lady Blackhawk: **Shows the Emperor a piece of the metal in question** Nth Metal. This fragment is one of the last pure pieces left in the universe. It's the only material capable of givign vastly different powers to those who possess it. Eternal life, flight, mystical vision. It defies all rules of science and magic. And at certain times, it seems to broadcast a strange kind of energy.

John: Like what we felt in that mountain...

Raiden: Yes, Johnathan. Carter came to believe that Nth Metal was from somewhere beyond the multiverse. He searched for clues about its origins in history, folklore. What he found were warnings, claims that the metal came from evil and lead to evil, but Carter wouldn't accept it. Over the years, he recruited the best people he could find to his search. Pilots, heroes, inventors, adventures who would challenge the unknown with him.

**As Raiden continues, John is a bit tense**

Kojin: John, you're shaking.

John: That energy, it's getting worse here, something's getting closer.

Raidne: They fought over it,, but not long ago, he felt his team was ready to get answers, to travel to the other side.

Superman: Stop being cryptic. What are you getting at, Raiden?

**Raiden sets down a map of the Multiverse**

Raiden: This is a map of the mutliverse, Superman. Not just this realm, but all realms made of matter and antimatter in existence. Your realm has 52 realms. They relive that to be a set number. However, the energy coming through Nth Metal, Hall couldn't trace it to any known part of the Multiverse on this map.

Flash: Look, Raiden, I've studied the Multiverse for years, and that's all there is, there's nowhere else for it to come from, is there?

Raiden: No.

**Shinnok (voiced by Troy Baker) flips the map over**

Shinnok: Unless it came from here. A dark Multiverse.

Ben: All we see is the back of a map, uncle.

Lady Blackhawk: Until recently, that's all any of us saw, everyone believed the building blocks of reality were matter and anti-matter, but not long ago, astronomers discovered a third material, and the scary thing is, it turns out dark matter and dark energy actually make up the great majority of the multiverse. This stuff we can't see or feel.

Raiden: So now look at the map and imagine Nth Metal connecting us to a realm much older and vaster then ours, an oceanic subconscious realm our multiverse floats on.

Flash: If this is true, it would change everything we know about everything. What proof do you have?

Lady Blackhawk: Proof? Ha! You sound like I did. Carter sent a team to prove me wrong. The entire mountain was ripped from our reality. The last trasmissions we got from them were screams. Screams about whole worlds of nightmare, of evil. Pleas to shut the door and never open it again, and a warning from Red Tornado just before we lost contact. A warning about a… Thing down there. He called it a "Great dragon", a beast that prowled the dark and had a name.

Baraka (voiced by Steve Blum): What name, Earthrealmer?

Lady Blackhawk: Carter had a journal, Baraka. It's been lost ever since he followed the challengers into the dark, but I searched theclues he left here, and what I found is record of a beast seen in visions, trasmissions though high metals. An original being. Matter, antimatter, and now darkness. I found many names for it in history. A dark-horned god of nightmare, of cursed stories. I see it hidden in other deities. Set, lord of the rabisu. All prayed to through metals be y the dark tribe, enemy of the birds. The modern name comes from Barbarus and Aes, foreign metal. Barbatos.

John: Barbatos…

Lady Blackhawk: Legend is it comes here through a human doorway, someone treated with five divine metals by its followers. Metals off the periodic table, A hero whose nightmares it collects as its army.

Monokuma: So that's the name, Barbatos. Now how the hell do we stop it?

Lady Blackhawk: That's the great evil. That's who we're fighting, but that's not the name I wouldn't speak before, because I found another word that came up over and over again with mentions of Barbatos. A traveling vessel. References to the wagon that would carry the beast here. Wagon, the root of the name? "Wayne". Batman. The one who let him in.

Freddy: Hang the fuck on, your theroy is that a being as old as the multiverse has been targeting Batman for thousands of years from a dark multiverse? Please tell me this isn't what he's been investigating.

**Batman says nothing as Lady Blackhawk pulls out a G18 pistol and aims it at Batman**

Lady Blackhawk: I'm sorry, Batman, but after Carter's mistake, I destroyed my wings and devoted my life to ending Nth Metal. It's my mission, and now today challenger's Mountain appears on your home turf with some of the Sperg Crew's worst enemies-

Red Tornado: THE DOOR! YOU OPENED THE DOOR!

**Red Tornado smashes the glass, destroying it**

Red Tornado: I WARNED YOU!

**The likes of Kung Lao, Ai and Naotora get wrecked as the others retreat to the Batcave with their comrades**

Goku: We'll meet you all at the cave!

**Goku teleports everyone there with his Shunkan Ido**

Red Tornado: HE'S COMING! HE'S COMING FOR US ALL

**He curbstomps the league, as Lady Blackhawk looks around for the Nth Metal**

Lady Blackhawk: Batman. He must've triggered Red Tornado, all to- The Nth Metal! Where Is it!?

GL: Let me get this straight, you brought us here, did all this, so you could trap Batman? That was your plan?! You obviously don't know him very well. Guy probably had a ride ready the moment we landed here, and I can promise you, It's something state of the art.

**Batman is riding a dinosaur, trying to keep it quiet**

Batman: Quiet, boy. Quiet! Alfred, I got what I came fore. Ready the Hyper Sub, fast.

Carter Hall: I told you how it begain, this story. Now let me tell you how it'll end. How it'll end if I'm wrong and the dark is a place of evil, as the Immortal and Kendra suspect. The end will begin with a shot fired from the dark, something to tear a hole in reality. And then, as dark energy pours into this world, the visions will start. Visions to those attuned to the power of Nth Metal. A glimpse of what's coming, a dark army, already on its way here. On its way here to find the one Barbatos has been after all these years. The wagon for the dark-horned god, son of the house of Wayne. And if Wayne has been prepared by the Judas Tribe, if the agents of Barbatos have set in motion its coming, then there will be no running for him. No running for any of us. Barbatos has been after its target since the dawn of man. It first saw him in the final moment of crisis And now, if you are reading this, a second moment is upon us. I have left this journal for you, in your house, the house of the family I trust most. Turned from Tribe Bat to Tribe Bird. The Waynes. Left it in a secret place that will make itself known to you through metal should I be wrong. Should energy from the dark rise to fortell the coming of Barbatos. You may feel it coming already, you may have felt it your hole life. Watching. Shaping from the dark. The final case. I give this journal to you for a simple reason, to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I was wrong. And I'm sorry for everything coming, but tonight I still have hope that you will never find this book, that it will stay hidden. Now, I venture into the dark myself. Explorer, detective, proud member of the Tribe of the Bird. I follow that first great dream of the true tribes. Signed, Carter Hall

**Meanwhile, Fate (Voiced by David Sobolov) and Steel (Voiced by Crispen Freeman) are also having nightmare visions, not only of both the Dark Knights and the enemies of the Sperg Crew, but of other big bads and evildoers**

Doctor Fate: What are these? These… Premonitions?

Steel: What in…? I don't understand. Something's getting… Closer?

**In the Batcave, Batman is studdying the Nth Metal**

Alfred: Sir, I'm begging you, tell them-

Batman: Please, Alfred. I'm too close to the answers and we're running out of time. The false energy signatures I left behind won't fool the league for long. I need to protect them. I need to protect everyone. I've never seen a pure sample, not since before the purge. The dark energy coming through it. Incredible. It must be why the Braalilans weren't watching Mongul. Braal is heavily magnetic. I amagin if we look at planets with heavy metal cores, we'll find those damn signs we missed.

Alfred: Sir, look up from that, something's happening. Listen, humming, it's like a…

**The lizard from before is hauling it, as Alfred and Batman listen to the humming**

Batman: Tuning form, yes. It's coming from upstairs.

**It then shows bodies and fire from the dark multiverse (AKA, the Original MK timeline) as several demons, and Kuroinu, lead by Volt, (voiced by Travis Willingham) carve bodies left and right, before it cuts to the current timeline, where Batman heads up to the study, seeing the iconic bat symbol, in the wooden floor**

Batman: Here? In the study all this time?

**He opens it and sees Carter Hall's journal. Reading the pages, he is straight up spooked**

Batman: The journal of Carter Hall. My god, so it's all true.

Dream of the Endless (voiced by Robbie Daymond): Yes, Batman, yes, it is, I am Dream of the Endless, and I have come to tell you that this nightmare… Has only just begun.

**Dream of the Endless hovers down, and walks up to Batman**

**To Be Continued**

**Part 2**

Carter Hall: From the journal of Carter Hall. I've lived many lives and have heard varying stories about the beginning of our great multiverse. The story I've heard most often, first from an old friend named Abin Sur, was about an ancient scientist, Krona, who wanted to explore the great mysteries of creation. Krona devlopled a machine to peer into the very core of the universe, to see what lay behind it all and what he saw was a great hand so far back that the very act of looking at it opened up millions of worlds. My point is, the actual origin story of our entire multiverse is about exploration, about discovery about searching for that one thing you have to find no matter what, Whatever it may be.

**Superman is flying through the vacumm of space, with Kronika and Ben in tow**

Ben: Tell me you're getting this, Diana.

WW: All over the world. I see it. Batman. We need to find Batman. Right. Now. Teams, report in.

**Gorilla City, Green Arrow (Voiced by Alan Tyudic) is being chased by a group of REALLY pissed off Apes**

Superman: Green Arrow?

Green Arrow: Nope. His heartbeat was a transmitter. Just monkey business! No offense back there!

Ape chasing him: GRAARGH! (We're APES, you dick!)

**Meanwhile, at the House of Mystery**

Superman: Zatanna, Constantine?

Zatanna (voiced by Lacey Chabert): Just another slight of hand, Superman. Nerdlich fo eht evarg, eb enog.

**Using this spell, hands appear around them**

Constantine (voiced by Matt Ryan): How the bloody hell did he hide a transmitter in walls made of souls?

Superman: Becuase he's been planning. Blue Beetle

**Lexcorp HQ. Metropolis, Jaime Reyas, AKA, Blue Beetle, is carving through Fiends and Monokumas like a experianced Sushi chef**

Blue Beetle (voiced by Anthony Del Rio): Sorry, no luck here! But so I'm clear. Why are we hunting Batman again?!

Superman: For one, because he's our friend, and he's in trouble, and for another? If Kendra and the Blackhawks are correct, he just stole the most dangerous weapon in the multiverse and we need to find him. Yesterday. Cyborg, we got dark energy rising, causing storms everywhere. Bat Symbols lighting up in hidden metal across the globe. Stories of a cosmic demon coming for Bruce. Please tell me you-

**The Amazon Rainforest, the Sperg Crew and JLA are chasing Batman**

Cyborg: We found him! I have eyes on him now.

Superman: Thank god. Just pin him down. Remember for all his tricks. He's only one man.

Cyborg: Thanks. We'll keep that in mind, Superman

**They land on a massive Bat-Hummer**

John: Pull over now, Damien, there's no winning here.

**Damien Wayne (voiced by Scott Porter) looks at John, glaring a hole through him**

Damien: Listen, pal, I'm 18 years old and driving a bat-hog through the amazon on a Tuesday morning, I'm already winning. Family, evasive action, NOW!

**Aquaman is chasing one of them**

Superman: Cyborg, can you-

Cyborg: They're blocking me! I can't tell which is him. And I can't tell who has the weapon in his bag. We need to-

Aquaman: Net them all, we're on it.

**Kojin summons Jurrac Velo, as Chris summons Hakaishin Reiju to go after one of the Batmen**

Batman?: (voiced by Troy Baker): Family, I have one on the line, now all I have to do is reel him...In?

**Aquaman tosses his Trident as Reiju and Velo fires flames, before Kojin traps him in a Hammerlock inverted armbar**

Kojin: Fish jokes? Batman would know better.

Batman?: Technically, "net them all" is a fish joke- GACK

**Kojin moves his arm up**

Aquaman: Unless I make them.

WW: Anything, Kojin, Aquaman?

Aquaman: NO weapon, Wonder Woman. Just bait.

**Flash is with King, who is riding his Mirage Dragon**

WW: Time to speed this up, Flash, King.

Flash: Done. Hey batman. Flash Fact about the human brain, the fastest neurons in it travel at about 120 miles per second.

**King's dragons unleashes a blast of rainbow colored blast at another Batman**

Flash: That's about the limit of the speed of thought. So yeah, you're smart as hell, but I literally move faster then you think.

Batman? (Voiced by Cameron Bowen): Bat fact about the human brain. It weighs 15 lbs when encased in ice.

Flash: Wh-?

**His head freezes and he beefs it into the water… Or does he**

Flash: Har-de-har. 120 miles a second. And now you're the last man standing.

Cyborg: I cracked their code. I see you, Nightwing, and you Batwoman, Batgirl, Red Hood, Batwing.

**They holograms wear off**

Nightwing: Okay, you guys win.

GL: Listen to us, Nightwing. If he took what they say they took, and it's in that bag, it's far too deadly for any one being in the Multiverse to possess.

Kojin: You need to give it to us, now!

**Kronika's keep, John is keeping tabs on the hourglass, seeing dark energy pour from it thanks to not only Shao Khan's failed invasion of Earthrealm and Shinnok failing as well, but also Liu Kang's death**

John: Man, it's getting worse and worse.

**Nightwing sighs**

Nightwing: Alright, Lantern, you win. Here

**He shows him a plant**

King: What is this? Is this a joke?

Nightwing: you're looking for the deadliest weapon on the planit. This is, to plants, It's and Exfolliant. It was in all the bags you snatched. The villagers around here burn it for fear of it's effects. They call it **Insert gibberish here**, which roughly translates to "the terrible green beat-down". Why? I couldn't guess.

**They hear the earth tremble**

GB: Wait, Cyborg, what are our coordonantes? Fast?

Aquaman: The ground, it's shaking…

**Cyborg scans the area and realizes they're in hot water with Swamp Thing (Voiced by Fred Tatasciore)**

Cyborg: We're… We need to get out of here right now-

Swamp Thing: Who dares?! Who dares attack the green here, at the Parlament of Trees?

**He erupts from the ground and throws down with everyone, an elemental throw down to be exact**

Damien: Basic strategy, father. Seperate, distract and regroup. So, what's the rendezvous?

Batman? (Voiced by Rick Wasserman): Don't be cocky, slow down before you...hit…Something.

**A red fireball hist the Bat-Hog, and a black blur grabs the fake batman, before he sees Red-Eyes grab him, with John riding on the back**

John: Enough. You and Clark have been friends for so long, and I've associated with you and the others for so long, I know your body language as well as Neith's. I understand that what Kendra said scared you, and I know you're trying to figure this out yourself, but taking what's in that bag and running off, you need to let us help! Whatever's coming for you-

Batman? Get the hell of me before-

John: Damnit, look at me! It's me, John. We're comrades. Now what in god's name is going on?!

Batman?: All right, you don't understand! I'm the only one who can stop it! This… Thing, Barbatos. It's been targeting me for year! I've even felt it, watching from the dark, shaping things. It first saw me when I went back in time. It saw me and it's been preparing me, they've been preparing me.

John: Who?

Batman?: The Judas Tribe. The Mantling has already started. It's been done to me.

John: What are you talking about? You're not making a lick of sen-

Batman?: Damnit, I'm talking about metal! Heavy metal! Just like Kendra said! Barbatos has its followers treat its prey with five impossibly heavy metals. It's called Mantling. When the prey is prepared, Barbatos' hih priests, the Strigyade read the ancient rites and the prey becomes the doorway.  
"Metals that weigh down a soul" That's what Carter Hall wrote in his journal. First, Electrum, when I was lost in the Owls' labyrinth. Dionesium when I fought Joker to the death. Promethium, present in my final machine, which I used to make me batman again after I died fighting the Joker. And now, Nth Metal, which I exposed myself to look into the dark myself, with Green Lantern and Duke. There's only one metal left. I don't know what it is, but if they infect me with it, I'll become the doorway. A cosmic counterweight. I go there, he comes here with whatever nightmares of mine he's pulled from the dark!

John: How do we stop it?

**It shows dark matter everywhere, energy storms and black lightning erupting from all over the multiverse**

Batman? I don't know that we can! It's happening now. In Metropolis, and over the world, metals laced by the Judas Tribe, conductors, they're screaming out that Barbatos is coming! Getting closer!

John: There has to be a way.

Batman? There might be, but the key is far from here. Very far. Come with me, we take the bag and-

WW: Enough. He's still lying, I don't need my lasso to tell me that. He's stalling us.

John: Red-Eyes… Dark Fire Bullet.

*Red-Eyes fires off a blast that burns a hole through the fake batman, revelaing Clayface

John: More damn tricks

WW: John, calm down.

Clayface: Easy, hellblazer. Just playing my part. Got him down pretty well though, eh?

John: I'm sorry, it's just… I meant what I said earlier. I know his body language, and he made these by transmitting his own heartbeat. But the rhythm. He's scared, guys. More scared then we've ever seen him. And I'm scared for him. For all of us.

King: We'll solve this, dude. If it takes us to the ends of the earth. We will.

**Finnistere, the Ends of the earth, Vandal (Voiced by Phil Morris) walks up**

Vandal: Pardon the décor, Kendra, I'm building this place for another purpose but with our need for secrecy, it's the best there is.

Kandra: Enough, I would never associate with you if this weren't dire, Vandal. None of us would, but Batman is still missing and the Visions have started. Doctor Fate, John Henery Irons, they have seen Barbatos' army. And the one called Plastic Man, the unstable cells that make up his body are vibrating at frequencies we've never recorded before. He could be the key to understanding what's coming. If we can find him…

Entity (Voiced by Robert Englund): There is no time. They are the oldest beings on the planet, immortals. Many of them descended from the original tribes. We have faced this threat before, and we must use the ultimate option if necesssary.

Kandra: But if we use the brain-

Mr Creepypasta (voiced by Derek Stephen Prince): If? You mean when. We voted, Kendra. While you were searchign for Wayne. It was decided.

Darkness (Voiced by Gerald C Rivers): You will take the Anti-Monitor's astral brain and you will fire it through the core of the Multiverse, at the Rock of Eternity, and destroy the Dark Multiverse Army once and for all.

Kandra: Mr Creepypasta, Darkness, Carter warned us, mixing anti-mater and dark mater, it could.

Ogoleithus (voiced by Jim Cummings): It shall be done. And what other choice do we fuckin' have?

Kandra: We keep looking.

Ogoleithus: The time for that is over.

Ra's: Forgive me, Demon God of Chaos. I know I am the youngest here of the Multiversial delegation, but I do know the detective well. And what he would be doing right now is finding a way to fight this. He'd be trying to take Barbatos on himself, head on. Is there anywhere that impulse might lead him?

Kandra: No. The only way would be to go back to the start. And for that he'd need to find the ancent resting place of… Oh no!

**Valley of the Kings, the Tomb of Hath-Set, Batman lands there, ready and keeping his eyes peeled**

Batman: I can feel you there, Dream. Please tell me my plan is the right one.

Dream: I cannot speak to your plan, Batman. I've done what I can for you in this realm. If the nightmare army succeeds. If the world goes dark, call to me in the place of the black sun. I wish you luck.

**He vanishes**

Batman: Wait… Dream. Dream! Am I doing this right?

Superman: I don't know who you're talking to, Bruce, but to answer your question, no.

WW: You're not doing the right thing, not by a long shot. Now give us that bag.

Superman: Please. You know what it's capable of. It's destroyed entire worlds before, killed people we both cared about.

Batman: I know…

**Batman gets out a Baby Darksied, (The fully grown one is in Shang Tsung's Island with the others)**

Batman: And I'm here to use him. Now, stay back!

WW: Darkseid? Bruce. Just because he's been transformed into a baby doesn't make him any less dangerous.

Batman: You don't understand. Darkseid's Omega Beams once unhinged me from time itself, sent me back to the beginning of man. Barbatos saw me then. He set all of this in motion at that moment. The multiverse is in danger, it's my fault and I endanger it every moment I stand here. We don't have much time. Grail wil be looking for him. I have Hawkman's mace now. Barbatos was beaten with it once before. The only time he walked the earth. I'm going ot use the Omega Sanction to go back and do it again.

WW: The omega sanction?! You only escaped that time becuase-

Batman: Becuase Barbatos wanted me to.

WW: It's pure madness, Bruce. You go back, you'll erase yourself from the world. You'll erase Batman Forever.

Batman: You don't think I know that?! I know it's just a one-way, just.. Just please. Watch over my family, all of them. And Damian, help him become a better man then I ever was. And tell him I'm sorry. Tell them all. Now when I remove these Godwave Goggles, we'll all be at risk. I need you both to stand back!

WW: Batman, please…

Kendra: It's Kendra, Wonder Woamn, do you hear me? Did you find him?

WW: Not now, Kendra.

Kendra: No, listen dammit. He thinks he's in the tomb of Prince Khufu, but he's not. I destroyed that tomb decades ago. They misdirected him and walked right into their trap. He's in the tomb of Hath Set! You've beem set up!

Batman: No…

**Both of then get hit by gunfire and Kytin bugs, complements of Satan and D'Vorah**

Satan: Hehehe, Miss us, boy scout?

D'Vorah: This One will consume your Kryptonian flesh, Kal-El

Superman: AARGH!

WW: What is…?

**Both league-rs gets shot with a blast of blood from Samuel Townsend**

Samuel: I suggest you stay down…

**All 3 vanish into the Dark Energy, to get the others ready, as the horrifying preists of Barbatos show up**

BC 1 (voiced by Brian Drummond): It's been so long, so long since our eyes have rested on you, great traveler. We, the ancient priests who serve the dark god Barbatos in your name. So long have we Strigydae waited for this day. For the Mantling. And now it is upon us!

Batman: How.. How did you do this?

Owl 1 (voiced by Robin Atkin Downes): Oh, hiding in history has always been the greatest talent of the Court of Howls. Since our ancestors broke from the Birds for the bats and were condemned as the Judas Tribe, we've helped our dark brethren. All these years we've been preparing you for him, my boy. Infecting you, weighing you down, each step bring you closer. Now our pact is complete, and we have woken the ancient Strigydade so they might bring the bat god here from the dark.

**The Sperg Crew evesdrop on this, faces pale with fear, as one of them takes the Baby Darkseid**

Batman: I'll stop you.

Owl 1: No, Batman. That time is past. We've spent generations hiding our nests in Wayne buildings. Did you really think we didn't know where Carter Hall hid his journal? All we needed to do to lead you here was change the coordinantes of the tomb. Your reckless obsession did the rest.

Owl 2 (Voiced by Troy Baker): Hush now, baby Darkseid. We think you'll like this bedtime story. Now, the final step of the Mantling was a challenge. The Last Metal didn't exist in our world. We funded the science, but it was the great powers collider in the Gotham that finally did the trick. Stories so often rhyme in the most interesting ways. We should have known that the finle metal would be forged in the heat of the cosmos beneath Gotham City

Batman: Stop this! Stop this now!

Owl 3 (voiced by Jeremy Sisco): The final metal, the one to drag you down into the dark, named perfectly. Batmanium

**The element in question drips down, creating a circle as the other 2 land down**

John: Shang, get us outta here…

Owl 4 (voiced by Peter Onorati): Your whole life, your time as Batman. It has all lead to this, Bruce Wayne. Let him through you. Be the doorway!

Batman: No, no. Don't do this!

Owl 1: It's too late for that. Strigydae, begin!

**Ominous chanting can be heard as green energy pulses through the room, showing Shang Tsung (voiced by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), who creates a soul portal, as Batman gets engulfed in the element, becoming the very doorway**

Batman: No… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Owl 2: It's opening! He has become the doorway!

Owl 3: The bat god comes!

Owl 1: Hail Barbatos! He will reward us!

Owl 4: He will chain the world, and we shall rule with him!

Owl 3: I see something! Look.

Owl 2: I can hear him!

Owl 1: He's here! He's he-

**They hear screatches as Crows, demented Robin demons lunge out and maul them, ripping them to shreads and gnawing on their internal organs**

****Crows: Crow! Crow Crow! Crow Crow Crow!

**They see something out of Hellraiser mixed with Batman walk out, The Batman Who Laughs (voiced by Troy Baker) walk out**

BWL: Bar.

**They stand down**

BWL: That's right, heel boys.

Superman: My god…

WW: Bruce.. WHERE IS HE!

**Barbatos (voiced by Bruce Greenwood) lumbers out**

Barbatos: You want Bruce Wayne? Look around!

**They see The Drowned (voiced by Kari Whalgren) strut up and stab her trident to the ground, followed by the Devastator (Voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) lumber up, snarling as green mist drools out of his mouth. Followed up is a red blur, the Red Death (voiced by Michael Doboson) who stops, red bats surrounding him. Next was Murder Machine (voiced by Roger Craig Smith), who walks out, shifting his arm from a blade, to a cannon and then back to an arm. Next was The Merceless (voiced by Michael Ironside), who spins the Godslayer before resting it on his shoulder, Followed up with the Grim Knight (voiced by Kevin McKid), who loads up his guns, and finally the Dawnbreaker, (Voiced by Rino Rommano) who hovers down, his eldrich constructs snarling.**

Devastator: I'm right here

Murder Machine: I'm right here

Drowned: I'm right here~

BWL: I'm right here.

Merceless: I'm right here

Red Death: I'm right here.

Dawnbreaker: I'm right here

**Satan then walks out of the shadow, adjusting his tie, followed by D'Vorah, who has her stingers out, Samuel then walks out next, his glasses off and he puts them on, unsheathing his claws. Armstrong and Taurus then walk out, the former hardening his fists with nanomachines, and the latter pointing Wilt at the downed heroes. Vigo then walks out, his eyes glowing with power, as Kamoshida walks out, shifiting from his demon form to his shadow form. Beo and Phobos then walk out, Demons and Makku walking out behind them, as Drakkon leads up the pack, his Sentries behind him**

Carter Hall: But I didn't tell you the whole story. The Origins of the mutliverse. Becuase the thing is, as much as I fight the truth, the fact is, the story of Krona, it's also a tragedy.

Superman: Barbatos. We will beat you.

WW: We've beaten gods and monsters before

Barbatos: Becuase I let you. Welcome to the dark.

**Before he turns them into husks, Shang bails them out with his magic, transporting him to his island's ruins**

Carter Hall: See, Krona was reviled for his hubres, for going too far. He became the most hated man in the Multiverse. That great hand, it might as well has pointed its finger at him and accused him itself. The origin story of our multiverse, it's a cautionary tale. It says explore too far, and you may just become the villan of your own story.

BWL: This is gonna be fun… We got a who's who of the worse! D'vorah and Satan, Armstrong and Beo… HehehehehehHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

**Shang Tsung's Island, well, the ruins of it, Clark and Diana slowly wake up, seeing the Koei Coaition, and their allies, plucked by the soul vampire, who appears, in his movie gear**

Shang Tsung: Welcome, friends. I am Shang Tsung, and this is my island. I bid you welcome to explore. Hidden among the island's ruins are magic, monsters and the methods to defeat Barbatos and his minions. Take what you want, within reason. You'll find that time spent here will be well rewarded.


	4. Chapter 4: Ride the Lightning

**The Dark Multiverse, a place where your darkest nightmares are reality, where the stories that shouldn't be are real as real can get, and the headquarters of the dark army of Barbatos**

BWL: Stop me if you've heard this one. Worlds will live, worlds will die, but imagine if your every fear, each bad decision, gave birth to a malformed world of nightmare. A world that shouldn't exist, and desparite as it fights to survive in the light of the true multiverse far above. These worlds are doomed to rot apart and die, because they are wrong at their core. Welcome to the Dark Multiverse. Home to stories that should never be. It's all one big cosmic joke. Except no one on this side is laughing. Well almost no one. Listen close. Now is the story of a world's end, and a world transformed.

**Central City, Earth -52, the sky is red with Central City falling apart at the seams, with people getting sucked up**

BWL: Witness the rise of a Dark Knight.

**The flash of this world (Voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) is running through, panicing**

Flash: It's getting worse, Central City is coming apart! We shouldn't be fighting! Time is running out! You're the smartest person I know! This is bigger then either of us. We have to do something before it's too late!

**A blast of lighting hits near Flash and he dodges, followed by a blast of fire and ice**

Batman (Voiced by Michael Dobson): As usual, you're already late, Flash. It's time you let someone else have the speed force.

**This batman, the one who would become the Red Death, has all of the Rogue's tech, pointing the cold gun at the fastest man alive**

Flash: Batman, I told you! I won't give you the speed force. I've lost people I loved, too, but.

Batman: THEN YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND! If you don't help me willingly, I'll make you.

Flash: You know the things I've done. The mistakes I've made with these powers in the past. It's impossible to be everywhere at once.

Batman: Unlike you, I tried to be, and it cost me my family.

**It shows the grave of his sidekicks, Dick, Jason, Tim and Damien, in the present, Batman, using Mirror Master's Mirror Gun, jumps through a portal**

Flash: Using one of Mirror Master's old tricks, really? All the rogues weapons. Why do you think you'll succeed with all of them when they couldn't?

Batman: You're right, my toys are better. It didn't have to come to this. I asked you for help and you rejected me. If our roles were flipped, I would have used every tool at my disposal to get you what you needed.

**Batman shatters through on a gigantic battank**

Flash: I said no because of your plans for the speed force! It is a dark path to run! I can see you're desperate and hurting!

Batman: After my parents were murdered, I travled the world to learn everything about science, martial arts and the supernatural to become Batman and it wasn't enough! Not for Jason, Tim, Dick and Damien. Gotham did what it always does. It takes and takes and takes. I need ot find a way to stay one step ahead of it. But with each day, I feel myself getting older and slower. I NEED the speed force

**Batarangs and lasers blazing, Batman chases after Flash**

Flash: You can't turn back the clock!

**Firing a blast of red wind, he knocks Batman off his toy**

Flash: I'm sorry for what happened to your family. I am. But it won't end there. We have to figure how to save everyone, everything, together!

Batman: You're right, you're a good friend, Flash, I could always count on you and your Compassion.

**Flash walks up, hoping to console batman, but he injects something that freezes him**

Batman: You've just been injected with the crysostasis formula developed by Dr. Victor Fries. It's what he uses to keep his beloved Nora alive. I estimate your increased metabolism should burn it off in 3 seconds, but I won't need them

**Batman straight up drills Flash right in the face, knocking him out. He then comes too, strapped into the Batmobile with heavy chains**

Flash: Ugh… Wh-Where am I?

**He then sees that he's moving at ludacrous speed**

Flash: Oh… My… God… WHAT ARE YOU DOING!

Batman: I studied your designs for the Cosmic Treadmill and repurposed its engine to let me harness your connection to the Speed Force. I will race into the Speed Force and steal it from you!

Flash: Bruce… Don't!

Batman: The mistake I maid when I vowed to my parents that I would save Gotham is that I was thinking too small. I should have promised to save the world

**Batman floors it on the accelerator and drives INTO the Speed Force, as the Scarlet Speedster screams bloody murder**

Flash: You can't access the Speed Force this way! You can't force it! It will rip us both apart!

Batman: I know

Flash: No!

Batman: I'm sorry, Barry

Flash: Please

Batman: But now we can save the world

Flash: Bruce!

Batman: Together

Flash: You can't give up like this, Bruce. Th-There's hope. There is always…

**Flash slowly begins to disenagrate down into a skeleton alongside Batman as they meld into what is now the Red Death, meanwhile, in Gotham, all hell is breaking loose with rioting in the streets**

Satan: Ever since the red skies appeared, crime has escalated at an unheard-of rate in Gotham with no signs of slowing down! Riots! Looting! Worst crime wave in Gotham City history It's time we blow up the bridges and turn it into a no-man's land and finally kill Gotham once and for all

Man (voiced by David Vincent): This way. I know a back way out of downtown

Woman (voiced by Erica Mendez): I'm so scared!

**This earth's scarecrow lands down, his arm mounted scythes gleaming**

Scarecrow (-52 and voiced by Corey Burton): What you're experiencing is a form of is a form of Thanatophobia. A particularly harsh case of the doomsday blues. It's perfectally natural in times like these. But let Scarecrow assura you. The end is nothing to be afraid of. Trust me.

**He raises his blades up**

Scarecrow (-52): I'm a doctor

**Red Death punches a hole right through the "good" doctor's chest, gripping his still beating heart**

Red Death: My name is Bruce Wayne.

Flash (muffled): No, Bruce!

Red Death: I am Vengeance.

Flash (muffled): Stop. Please. Don't do this. Please listen to me

Red Death: I am The Red Death! Before I used to spend so much time alone on rooftops, dwelling on my actions, but now I don't have time to think twice with the Speed Force. It's released me. I have saved Gotham. Now I will save our world. I finally have all the time I'll ever need.

**It shows Riddler crucified, half of his body reduced to a skeleton, and Penguin with his face grinded off into the pavement, and Man-Bat with both his wings gruesomely torn off, and his jaw torn off as well, as Red Death heads to Wayne Tower and sees it coming apart as well**

Red Death: Wayne Tower… Is falling? What is happening? The sky. The world, it's breaking apart. I'm not fast enough to save it. There is a part of me, something deep inside that still gives me hope that I can save this world.

**He then hears a chuckle and sees BWL, who walks up**

BWL: Even if it means the destruction of another?

**Barry pops out**

Barry: Bruce! It's Barry, stay away from him! Don't listen-

**They refuse**

Red Death: Who… What are you?

BWL: Someone very much like you. Someone who lost his world simply because it was born down here.

Red Death: Down?

BWL: Our worlds aren't meant to last. They are destined to die. It's a cruel law of nature in this place. You can feel it yourself, can't you? Your time is meant to end now. But what if I told you there was a world far far above us, that was destined to live?

**Red Death thinks it over, and flashes a slasher smile**

Red Death: Tell me more.

BWL: My master Barbatos sent me and Satan here. To find a few good heroes who could conquer that world and make it a home for all of us orphaned by the Darkness.

Satan: What do you say? Do we have a deal?

**Red Death shakes his hand, as the scene shifts back to Earth-0, mainly Central City, home of the Scarlet Speedster, the Flash, and 3 days removed from the baddies of the Sperg Crew showing up alongside Challenger's Mountain, Iris Allen and Wally West are having lunch**

Wally (Voiced by Josh Keaton): Thanks for meeting with me, aunt Iris.

Iris (voiced by Cherami Leigh): It's okay, Wally. I've been covering the incident on Gotham and needed the break.

Wally: Well, off the record, but Superman sent a message to every hero to keep an eye out for Batman. Even Robin reached out and he HATES me. That means whatever is going on is real bad.

Iris: Doubt Batman would ever come to Central City

Wally: True. We have our hero, Right?

Iris: Wally…

Wally: Barry should be here. With us

Iris: I asked Barry for some time

Wally: What if you wait too long- What is that?

Iris: It looks like…

**Soon, red bolts of energy and hellfire appear from the sky, as the Red Death blitzes past, aging people into the dust while Satan and his organization, Los Diablos, are unloading on others**

Iris: What''s happening to the city?

Wally: Wait, are these bats- GAH!

**Satan walks out, his gun barrel smoking after kneecapping Wally**

Satan: My… The Flash's Family. His love and his sidekick. Reddy? You know what to do.

Red Death: Just know, Satan. We are only Lord Barbatos' vanguard.

Flash (Muffled): Don't you dare hurt them! Iris, RUN!

**Iris walks up, pissed ass all hell**

Iris: Look, you two, I dunno who you are and I couldn't give less of a damn. The last speedster who hurt my nephew ended up dead, so I don't care how scary you two are. You leave Wally-

Wally (now voiced by Steve Kramer on acount of the speed force rapidly aging him): Iris…? Something is wrong with the speed force… I'm so slow…

**Iris is shocked as she begins to rapidily age**

Iris: Wally!

Wally: Iris… Your hands…

Iris (now voiced by Tress MacNeil): It's okay, Wally… We'll be okay…

Red Death: This world's Flash, Satan. He'll understand that in tiems of crisis, there must be a sacrifice.

**Satan turns around, ready to say something, but then gets suckerpunched by a heroic speedster**

Satan: GUH! Can somebody get me the number of that car?

**Satan's goons all get drilled, disarmed and straight up wrecked as our world's scarlet speedster, the Flash, as his hometown falls apart at the seams **

Flash: I don't know who the hell you think you are, but there won't be any sacrifices in MY city!

Satan: **Spits out a tooth** That bat god, Bar...something or other was right. Barry can't resist a good ol fashion crisis. Especially not one on an infinite scale. Boys?

**The mooks that AREN'T TKO'd raise their AK74s at the Flash**

Satan: Mulch 'im.

**They open fire, with Flash evading and knocking out each of his goons**

Satan: Right, connection to the Speed Force. I kinda forgot.

**Satan summons a hellfire portal**

Satan: Well, Reddy, it's been a blast turning Central City into a hellhole, but I got deals to make, goons to train, and a certain Red Demon to kill. Ciao.

**Satan walks away, as Red Death cracks his neck, before gunning it**

Flash: Running is sort of my thing, so there's no use trying to escape!

Red Death: Once upon a time, I was jealous of yours and Clark's little races, but it doesn't matter.

**Red Death summons his bats as he drifts around and clocks Allan in the jaw**

Flash: Your drift, those bats.. Everything hurts… Feel… Old…

Red Death: There will be no more racing, Barry.

Flash: That voice… Bruce? Is that you? Is this what happened after you left Blackhawk Island?

**Flash gets a shotgun dropkick to the face from GR-666 (Voiced by Dolph Lungren) sending him sprawling back, as Red Death circles around, and does a mule kick, knocking him to the pavement as he and the corrupted UniSol stand over him**

Flash: If there is a part of you inside that armor, Bruce. Then you're still my friend, and if there is anything I can count on, it's your compassion.

Red Death: WHAT?

Flash: (muffled): Bruce, listen to me.

**A soul portal opens up as Shang Tsung walks out**

Shang Tsung: Through here. Quickly!

Flash: Shang Tsung? What're you-

**Flash gets grabbed by the sorcerer and they head through to his Island**

Red Death: Go ahead. Run, Barry. RUN! IT WON'T SAVE YOU! WE'LL FIGHT AGAIN, FLASH! LORD BARBATOS FORETOLD THE END OF OUR STORY! I will turn Central City into the home I lost…

**Everything starts falling up**

Red Death: And save my Gotham.

Flash (Muffled): Bruce, no!

BWL: Let me tell you a secret. All it takes is one bad day. One moment that should never happen, and the ground beneath you starts to crumble. Trust me. I know firsthand. All of us do. And now the seven most dangerous Batmen that never were are here to drag you into the dark. So yeah, one bad day will kill a world, but a bad week? That could kill a Multiverse.

**The Batman Who Laughs rolls his head back and laughs, the sound traveling as Barry, who look like he went through hell, is deposited at the Forge of his island**

Shang Tsung: My humblest apologies, Barry. But our wish was to save you from the monsterous Dark Batman who wished you harm.

Flash: At the cost of my ribs?

**at that moment, a girl pops her head out, her hair all cut and medical suplies all over the place**

Ultimate Nurse (voiced by Stephanie Sheh): U-Um… Mr Tsung, sir? He looks injured. I shall tend to him right away!

Shang Tsung: Go ahead… Tsumiki Mikan.

**Mikan tends to the Scarlet Speedster**

Flash: Okay, why save me? So you can suck my soul?

Shao Khan: You are one of the ones that can save all of reality, alongside the one who longs for Mileena…

Flash: And that guy is…?

**Kojin walks out**

Kojin: That'd be me. Name's Kojin Shinigami. Summoner of the Sperg Crew.

Flash: Yeah, not a big fan of your methods though.

Kojin: I should've seen that coming-

**John puts a hand on his shoulder**

John: Sorry for Kojin, he can be a bit… Yeah. **helps Barry to his feet**

**At the Courtyard**

John: So, you had a run in with Satan, eh?

Flash: He was no problem, it was his robotic BFF that gave me trouble.

John: You mean GR666… Yeah, that guy's a beast and a half.

Flash: What WAS that thing though? I thought he only was skilled in magic.

Shang Tsung: Sorcery is not my only vocation. I am also an inventor. While a modest endevor, this forge is my finest. It can transmute materials into items and weapons all can find more… Useful.

**Flash looks around and sees King, John, GB, Both Joshes, Michael Luckyfoot, Chris, and others**


	5. Chapter 5: Heavy Metal

**Detroit, Michigan, the Motor City. The birthplace of Motown and Techno music, where every GM, and American vehicle was made with the blood, sweat and tears of a long days work. Inside S.T.A.R. Labs, Silas Stone (voiced by Marz Timmz) is exceedingly busy on the phone, talking with his son, Victor Stone, the half man, half machine hero, Cyborg**

Cyborg: Dad, what's that ringing?

Silas: Just one of a thousand alarms that go off in here every day. Probably some punk M.I.T. student who thinks he can get a job if he breaks into my work station. Don't give it a second though.

Cyborg: Dad, I told you, you need to get out of S.T.A.R. Labs now. Something serious is going on. Some kind of invasion. Cities are falling.

Silas: That is precisely why I'm staying put. I want to understand what's going on here. I can help you. It's the metal, isn't it? That's what you said the Blackhawks told the Leaguers, Metal vibrating at the frequency of of an undiscovered plane of Existence. In case you've forgotten, Victor, I've worked with otherworldly metals in the past. A few of them are right in your chest.

Cyborg: Hard to forget, Dad.

Silas: I'm an old man sitting is probably the best protected laboratory in North America. You're the one with missing teammates. I can protect you from my office. Put all the power of S.T.A.R. Labs behind you.

Cyborg: Dad, I promise you, I'm in a very safe place.

**The Watchtower, a massive space station, King is with Cyborg, the former training, at the behest of both Shang Tsung and John **

Cyborg: Look, dad. Gotham as we know it is gone, replaced with something I can barely understand. I came up to the Watchtower to study it, but now Central City is changing too, Detroit could be next. I want you to promise me that you're going to go home, now!

Silas: Okay, so you're pulling data on all of the cities of the Justice League to see if a pattern's Emerging? I can work with that.

Cyborg: Okay, fine. If you're going to help, patch me into all of the telemetry you can pull on Metropolis, Amnesty Bay, Coast City, Washington D.C., and Detroit. We're looking for any kind of energy signatures out of the ordinary.

**King hears the watchtower beeping**

King: What's that, Vic, one of those Dark Knights? That hellraiser reject? That dark flash?

Cyborg: No. One of the members is teleporting in!

**Cyborg sees something that confuses him**

Cyborg: Says… Batman? Well, looks like we'll need less of your help then I thought, dad. I'll keep you posted.

**Cyborg and King walk up, as another figure appears behind him, no, several figures**

Cyborg: Batman? Man, are you a sight for sore, cybernetic eyes, but where the hell-

**Murder Machine blasts the cyborg hero aside, as Samuel Townsend slashes at King's leg and kicks the Essex based sperg aside**

Samuel: It's been a while… King.

King: Samuel!

Samuel: And I brought some friends along

**Benilda Pypat (voiced by Carol Bach y Rita), Quain Carver (voiced by Jeff Bennett), Eldrich Surge (voiced by Sean Chiplock) and Boudica Hegensen (voiced by Diane Salinger) walk out with the Nightmare**

Murder Machine: Don't worry, Cyborg. We're here to help.

**Samuel's bulky second in commmand lifts King up by the throat, as the Nightmare walks up to him**

Samuel: We've been keeping tabs on you since Blackhollow… King. Watched you claw your way back from the edge of sanity. Watched you master the very monsters that failed you 13 years ago. And now here we are, reunited after all this time… Now then, time to pear into the maw of the Murder Machine.

**Samuel takes off his shades, and creates a black bog that surrounds Cyborg, King himself, and his minions, before it shows Earth -44, where a who's who of this particular batman's rogues are pumbling Alfred (voiced by JB Blanc) into a pulp**

Killer Croc -44 (Voiced by Ron Perlman): I dunno about you, Jeeves, but I can do this all day

Harley Quinn -44 (voiced by Laura Post): Nuh-uh, Wally Gator, save some for the rest of us.

Two-Face -44 (voiced by Travis Willingham): Enough of this. Now tell us where Batman is before we really get rough.

Alfred -44: Ugh… Batman? What, pray tell… **Croc cracks him in the stomach** GAH! Is a Batman?

**The Bane of Earth -44 (Voiced by Jason Lieberchet) hoists the bloody butler up and King watches in fear**

Bane -44: Perhaps there is another way I can be of service.

**Bane snaps his back fatally, killing him, as the bog shifts to the batcave, where the Batman of this negative universe (voiced by Roger Craig Smith), is hurting, when the Superman of that world (voiced by Adam Baldwin) walks up**

Batman -44: Play again.

Superman -44: Bruce, this has to stop

WW -44 (voiced by Laura Bailey): Clark is right, Bruce. We're concerned.

Superman -44: Watching this over and over again, it's not healthy

Batman -44: I'll tell you what's not healthy, Clark. It's not healthy to stand here knowing that the man who raised me like a father is in a casket upstairs with 36 shattered bones. That we couldn't have an open casket because he was beaten to a pulp six feet from where you're standing now. My whole life, he's been there for me. No matter what I had done, no matter how angry I made him. I would ring, and he would 's not healthy to know that he won't be there anymore, and that it's my fault

Superman -44: But now you have the responsibility to honor him by putting him to rest. Bruce, what happened to Alfred was horrible. The rest of us are going to be upstairs at the wake. I hope you'll join us.

**As the suited leagues head up to say their goodbyes, Batman stops Victor Stone**

Batman -44: Vic, wait. A few years ago, I began a scan of Alfred's mind to create an Artificial Intelligence that might outlast him. But it was never finished. I called it the Alfred Protocol.

Cyborg -44 (voiced by Bumper Robinson): What are you asking me, Bruce?

Batman -44: I can't bring him online by myself. I need your help… Please Vic. I need him. He was like a father to me.

**Samuel dismisses the bog , bringing all of them back to the watchtower, and right into a brutal lariat from Murder Machine**

Silas: Victor?! Victor, what's happening?!

Murder Machine: Hello, Dr Stone.

**As Murder Machine changes his right arm into a razor sharp blade, King, with Dark Magician out, is deftly dodging the tree trunk like arms of Benilda**

Murder Machine: You know, your son victor was one of my closest friends. He helped me when no one else would.

**Dark Magician unleashes a blast of energy that knocks the overgrown pile of lard on her back, before the Sculpture and the Senderman charge in, Eldrich using a weapon key to unlock a portal, getting out a pair of Kama as Quain lunges at King's Dark Magician**

Murder Machine: He reunited me with my father after I thought I had lost him. It is strange, I admit, seeing Cyborg again.

Silas: Don't you hurt him! I… I can help youI can give you anything you want!

Alfred Protocol: How can I help you?

Murder Machine: Mute transmission.

**The feed goes dark, as Cyborg slowly gets to his feet, a second wind forming in the former all-American turned cybernetic superhero**, **as the metalic menace turns is attention to King, who is in a full nelson hold thanks to Boudica, while Samuel walks up**

Samuel: You really should thank me. I did inspire you to be a better man, didn't I? Think of all we could acomplish together, serving under Barbatos…

King: Fuck you, and fuck Barbatos.

**King headbutts Samuel, knocking the Nightmare back, before flipping the Boo Hag over his head**

Murder Machine: Your father will learn his role soon enough, as will you-

**Cyborg blasts him into Carver and Eldrich, knocking him, the Sculpture and the Senderman on their asses**

Cyborg: Yeah, I don't know who you are, or why you're pretending to be Batman, but you or your little freakshow friends are NOT getting near my father!

**Cyborg fires a series of different projectiles from his body, the dark knight **

Murder Machine: You always understood, Victor. Even on my world, the power between Fathers and Sons. When I lost mine, you were the one to bring him back to me, give him shape and form. A powerful machine, capable of performing any tasks I might need, with the heart and soul of the man who loved me. With your help, we would never have to part ways again. He would be a with me, a part of me, forever. Now all I have to do is ring for him and he arrives

**Tendrils jut out of Murder Machine and hack into the Watchtower and the Alfred Protocal appears**

Alfred Protocol: How may I help you?

Cyborg: What the hell… Alfred?

Alfred Protocol: How may I help you?

**As the pile of 1's and 0's that is the Alfred Protocol takes aim, Samuel creates another nightmare bog, hoping to break King's fighitng spirit again, this time, starting with the protocol repeating "How may I help you", "Ring the bell" and "Let me in, sir"**

Bane -44: L-Look, I'm not going to go after Batman anymore, see? I'm going to the airport now. Going home to Santa Prisca Y-You don't have to kill me, too. I'll leave-

**The clones open fire on Bane, leaving him with holes in his flesh**

Cyborg: Bruce, what the hell is going on?

Batman: It's him, it's Alfred. He started spreading once he was activated. Creating more and more of himself. Nothing seems to be able to stop him.

Cyborg: But why?

Batman: He's trying to protect me. Take away everything and everyone that might hurt me. Bane wasn't the beginning. He was the end. Last night, the Alfred Protocol systematically murdered every inmate in Arkham Asylum.

Cyborg: Damnit, Bruce. The whole point of this was to build you an A.I. that could stitch you up and make sure you ate your dinner. We have to stop this before it goes any further. We need to deactivate the program.

Bamtan: I agree, and I'm still his blind spot, Victor. He's doing all of this because he cares about me. If I let him back into the cave, I can reprogram him, stop him from doing anything like this again.

Cyborg: No Bruce.

**Cyborg grabs the Dark Knight and makes him look into his eyes**

Cyborg: You can't do that. This is a hungry virus looking to feed and spread. We need to come up with a way to destroy-

**Batman breaks the iron grip of Cyborg**

Batman: I already lost him once, Victor. I can fix this, make it better and keep him.

Cyborg: Look, Bruce. Figure out a way to break through. I'm going to find a way to fight it from the outside, without letting either of us get too vunerable. Whatever you do, don't let them in

**From SAMUEL'S blind spot, a claw hits him in the shoulder blade, brekaign the bog**

Hayden: You're not hurting him, Samuel.

Murder Machine: He was wrong, King. The best thing I ever did was let him in. I still remember the fear when they surrounded me. I realized quickly that my plan was not going to work. I would not be able to affect the program in time. And when they grabbed onto me, started to spread through my entire body, I was foolish enough to scream in fear.

**Cyborg is getting the snot kicked out of him by Samuel Townsend, who is laying it on him with claw strikes and kicks**

King: You think I give a rat's arse what he-

**Murder Machine kicks the Englishman while he is down**

Murder Machine: That was the first thing my father fixed in me. He took my ability to feel fear away. My ability to feel sadness. You know, to the point where I had spent my life obsessing over my lost birth parents, ignoring the one who was there right in front of me. I was free of that as well. Next came my weak, human flesh, it was growing older and more brittle by the day, he rebuilt me, made me stronger-

**Cyborg blasts the Murder Machine in the back and helps King to his feet**

Cyborg: I remember what it's like being rebuilt from the ground up. Been there, done that.

King: But we can promise you one thing. You can throw every bloody monster and robo-Alfred in the world at me, but you're not getting access to the Watchtower's computer system. Vic's been outmaneuvering every bloody attempt you've made to hack the system in the last few minutes.

**King summons out Vorse Raider, who slashes the Alfreds to ribbons**

Cyborg: You're not getting in. I built these computers. If anything, you've opened yourself up to me.

**Murder Machine lunges at King and Cyborg and knocks their heads together, before sending them flying**

Murder Machine: I don't have any weaknesses to exploit, Victor. My father made me that way. I am sorry that your father didn't do the same for you.

Samuel: You failed to realize, King, is that we have no interest in your computer systems. We wanted the computer systems in S.T.A.R. Labs in Detroit. And in an instant, Cyborg, you have crippled your nation's military and given up your hometown of Detroit to me and my compatriots to remake as I see fit.

**A person who became a Dr Salvador from RE4 is chainsawing through Silas' legs, splattering blood all over the place**

Cyborg: No, dad!

**In Detroit, Alfred Protocols and monsters alike were killing civilians in horrific and bloody ways, ranging from disembowelment to perforation, all while the former is saying "how may I help you?"**

King: NO!

**King summons all 3 Blue-Eyes and uses Polymerization to fuse them into Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, who roars**

King: I won't let another Blackhollow happen, you metallic son of a bitch!

Murder Machine: I'm sorry, King, but how could you and Victor hope to stop me here when you couldn't stop me on my world?

**Samuel decides that 3rd times the charm, showing the league, dead, all except one**

Murder Machine: After I became one with my father, you gathered the league to try and fight back, but I couldn't allow that, could I? They fell, one by one. Until you were the last man standing.

Cyborg -44: Listen to me, Bruce. I know you're still in there. I know you can still hear me. The protocol is trying to shut me down, but I'm still alive because you WANT to listen to me. The best part of you is your humanity. We can stop it before it rewrites you entirely, you can just have to want it. It will do what you want, Bruce. You can let go of alfred and be yourself again. You don't have to let yourself be some kind of horrible Murder Machine.

Murder Machine: Victor, I am precisely who I want to be.

**The metalic monster that was once Bruce Wayne, wealthy man around town, lumber up to Cyborg, and grips his hand**

Cyborg: Bruce… No…

**Murder Machine plunges his hand into Cyborg's chest with inhuman strength**

Murder Machine: My father will always be there for me, and I will always be there for him. Everyone else is a weakness.

**He tears out the spine and head of his world's Cyborg**

Murder Machine: A weakness I am ready to shed.

Samuel: His death should have heralded my tin friend's great beginning, but by a cruel trick of the cosmos, his world could not survive. He would later learn how it was destined to collaspe into nothingness. And he would learn of another path, another world. This world that is allowed to live while so many others die.

**Samuel gets blasted by Cyborg's blast, as King's fighting spirit remains strong, if not stronger then ever**

Cyborg: Hey, man. I didn't write the rules of the cosmos!

Murder Machine: And that is your great folly, Victor. You are the weakest of the league, because if you were willling to cast off the last of your humanity, you would be the strongest. You have no comprehension of the power that resides within you. And so we will take it and rewrite your world into something better in the name of Barbatos.

King: You're not takin' fucking anything, tin for brains. Blue-Eyes, lay waste to this tin moron! Neutron Blast!

**Blue-Eyes Ultimate charges up a blast of energy from all 3 heads and fires off a blast of energy at Murder Machine, sending him flying**

Cyborg: Booyah.

**Murder Machine sits up like a certain hockey masked killer**

Murder Machine: You believe your love for others makes you stronger? Let me prove you wrong.

**Cyborg and King hear footsteps**

Murder Machine: I will unmute your father now. I would like him to hear this.

Cyborg: W-What?

**Devistator grabs him and Adam Taurus slashes at his torso, before the hulking rock monster lifts him up and chokeslams him.**

Silas: V-Victor, is that you? Victor? Victor, what's going on?

Murder Machine: Subdue him

Samuel: With pleasure…

**Samuel rushes at Cyborg and then grabs his head with his claws. Sending nightmarish images into their head and causing them to scream and actually popping a few bits of the brain. He'll then squeeze to stab his claws into his head, breaking the skull. He'll then let go before stabbing two of his claws into the opponent's sockets, piercing through the eyes and into the brain even more, followed by ****Carver bearhugging rebar pierce into their body, having it wrap around several bones and organs to crush them. He'll then go and bite down on top of the opponents head, caving in the skull before taking out his rebar and then poking them through the eyes, piercing the sockets and the back of his skull.****Satan then bear-hugs Vic Stone, crushing his ribs and spine, before Draken and Phobos pile on the assault, alongside their comrades, ending with D'Vorah ****extend****ing a**** stinger-like barb from her palm and stabs the ****nearly dead ****thigh with it, extending another barb from her other palm to stab through the opponent's head. She then flip-kicks her opponent into the air and flies up after them, using two of her ovipositors to impale the opponent through ****his ****torso and the other two to stab both of ****his **** temples before kicking ****his nearly lifeless carcass ****to the ground **

Silas: Are you okay? Say something? Tell me! Is there something I can do?

**Adam chops off Cyborg's arm with Wilt, after the Daemon Inferna (voiced by Brandon Potter) holds him in a rear naked choke**

Samuel: Thank you, Dr. Stone. You have been a great service to us. One of our associates will be gathering you soon, so you will continue to be.

**King heads back through a portal to Shang Tsung's Island, or rather, limps back, leaving a trailer of blood**

Silas: No! I won't let you-

Murder Machine: Terminate call.

**They hear footsteps as Beo and The Batman Who Laughs walk in, the latter clapping, impressed**

BWL: He really had no idea, did he? Just think how much trouble that metal could have caused us if he had any idea how to wield it. Good thing he's got some friends to show him the way.

**Cyborg slowly lifts up his head, his vision fading fast, as Beo slams his foot onto his chest, forcing up more blood**

Beo: Oh hush now, Victor. Don't try to speak. I know our new friends must seem like cruel mosnters of nightmare, crawling out of the abyss to run over your world, and in a way, they are.

Cyborg: W-Why…?

BWL: The truth is, we're only here because the world was dark enough to dream us intoe existance, because deep down, it needed us.

**It shows Detroit, now like Blackhollow on a much larger scale, with monsters and Alfred Protocols running the show**

BLW: To protect them from from themselves. We all heard it, echoing through the cosmos. Through the very firmament. A great ringing, And we came, not with a question of how to help you, but with an answer. HEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

**The others join in a orchestra of bone chilling laughter as it shows Shang Tsung's island, with Nightwolf (voiced by Daniel Lujan)**

Nightwolf: Be wary, King. Our enemy were tougher then your spirits could handle

King: They're called "Duel Monsters", but thanks for tendin' to me.

**The defender of the Matoka helps King to his feet. As he sighs, before King feels John's hand on his sholder**

John: The best part was that you're alive.

Nami: John's right, my King. I couldn't ever… I…

**The dragon queen breaks down into sobs as King goes to console her, however, at the courtyard, Kojin who got wind of D'Vorah attacking Cyborg, is berserk, screaming and punching the wall until his knuckles bleed, when Rikion calms him down a bit**

Kojin: That god damned bug siding with Barbatos… He'll answer for this, and then, I'll watch as the life drains from that damn Kytin's lungs as my hands wrap around her fuckin' throat and throttle her.

Rikion: Kojin, there must be something else you can think about other then her. You have to let this go…

Kojin: Huff… What I wouldn't give to see her again, Mike… What I wouldn't give…

**meanwhile, back in the hourglass, Kronika sees worse things ahead for our heroes**

Geras (Voiced by Dave B. Mitchell): Kronika, the Multiverse portal plans are here in the Keep.

Kronika: Impressive, Geras. Does Joker have them?

Joker: Of course I do.

Ben: Nice to see mom's not picky on hired help.

**Two more folks step out from the shadows, one being the T-800 (voiced by Arnold Schwarzenegger) and the other being Al Simmons, AKA, Spawn (Voiced by Keith David**)

Spawn: You better give us a good fuckin' reason to interrupt us, kid, becuase as far as I know I'm already dead. Which means I'll be waiting for your sorry ass in the afterlife.

Ben: There's something unbalancing the multiverse, it's been making my mom restless and my grandma even more out of it then before… Mikan and the others are safe in Shang Tsung's Island, well, what's left of it, anyway.

Joker: Yeah, that's all well and good, Benny, but what about US? Huh? We got priorties too.

**A woman in a white robe walks out and undoes the hood, showing Frost (voiced by Sara Cravens)**

Frost: You might want to put that on hold, unless you want me to put you in a cold unfeeling metal body, Joker.

Joker: Yeesh, talk about an ice queen…

T-800: Do not worry. I shall protect the future alongside the hellspawn and the clown.

Ben: I'll hold you too that, big guy. And I'm sure my pals will feel the same. Mom? Grandma? If it's fine with you two, I'd like to join my comrades in the island. I wish to make sure HE is kept in check.

**Cetrion (voiced by Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn) nods approvingly**

Cetrion: Very well, my child. May the sands of time watch over you always.

**Kronika creates a sand portal and he heads to the island**

John: Ben, you took your time.

Ben: Family issues, my guy. So, Kojin snapped?

John: Yeah, but Rikion took care of that crap.


	6. Chapter 6: The Riddler's Labrynth

**Arkham Asylum, the gothic institution for the criminally insane, The Riddler (Voiced by Wally Wingert) is seen looking out the window at the dark energy storm that engulfed his once home of Gotham, the "Crow" of the rabid hellrobins perminating the Asylum as well as the screams of some of the guards**

Guard 1 (Voiced by Gregg Berger): Oh god,… What ARE those things?!

Guard 2 (Voiced by Josh Keaton): Get it OFF me!

Guard 3 (Voiced by Lucien Dodge): Shoot it, Shoot it-

**The 3 guards get horribally mauled as the wall crumbles down**

Riddler: W-Who…?

BWL: Edward Nigma, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that this is impossible. You see my height, my build, you hear my voice, and you know who I am. You know I am Batman, but you also know that I'm not. You know that I am something twisted and wrong, and that terrifies you.

**He holds up a card in front of the egomaniac, as Beo walks in, his imps snarling and snapping like rabid dogs**

Beo: But you wouldn't be afraid, Edward. You should be excited. We didn't come all this way to have my demons flay you, like our friend here did in his world. Nononono. We came to deal with you.

Riddler: W-What kind of game are you playing?

BWL: No. No. No. You're thinking about this all wrong,. You get to decide that for yourself. All your life, you've lived by a set of absolute truths. Hard and fast rules that could never be broken. Telling riddles, cutting through the complexity of those rules to see the truth within. But telling those truth got you locked away. With people calling you insane. You and so many others, but I have a way of changing all that, Edward. My metal cards, forged with cosmic metallurgy carry a power unlike anything this universe has ever seen before. All your life, you have been restrained by what is possible. I want to see what you can do without the restraints. Without the rules. Holding it in your hand, you and your friends can reshape reality to your whims. Take the card. Join the fun. And build this city into an impossible riddle that makes me LAUGH! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

**As he says this, it show one part of Gotham covered in ice and snow, with Mr Freeze (Voiced by Jim Perri) riding on the shoulder of a Snow Golem, Followed by Firefly (voiced by Crispen Freeman), engulfing another part into a flaming wasteland, up next is Poison Ivy (Voiced by Tasia Valenza) turning another part into a literal concrete jungle, Up next is Mad Hatter (voiced by Peter MacNicol) turning his part into a corrupted version of Alice in Wonderland, and Bane (Voiced by Fred Tatasciore) creating a social darwinist state where the weak die and the strong survive**

**Meanwhile, outside, Kojin, flying on his Overtex Qoatlus, John, flying on Eclipse Wyvern, NicoB, flying on Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and King, flying on Blue-Eyes, alongside Damien Wayne (voiced by Scott Porter) flies on his pet, Goliath**

Damien: When I last saw my father, he told me about a dark multiverse. An impossible place of nightmare, beyond his or anybody's understanding. An impossible place of nightmare, beyond his or anybody's understanding. A place from which a threat was coming that could tear down our world. Then I saw something in his eyes I'm not used to. The fear of not knowing what might be hiding in the dark. The fear of all the rules falling away. The last thing he said before he left us was that we were not to follow in his footsteps under any circumstance. A day later, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman vanished from the face of the Earth. Gotham is my father's city, which means it's my city. I refuse to let it fall. No matter how horrifying things may look. No matter what my father told me, if Batman is in there somewhere, only I can save him.

**In the Titan's Jet, Starfire (Voiced by Kari Whalgren), Raven (Voiced by Tara Strong), Beast Boy (Voiced by Greg Cipes) and Aqualad (voiced by Khary Payton) are discussing amongst themselves as to what's gotten into their leader**

Beast Boy: Part of me feels bad for Daimen. And another part of me feels like he's a villian who thinks he's a good guy.

Raven: Now's not the time to come down on him, Beast Boy.

Beast Boy: Now's EXACTLY the time to come down on him, Raven. A few days a go a giant mountain showed up in Gotham City, Now nothing is coming out except insane, end-of-the-world level rumors about some kind of labyrinth, and that little punk has us headed straight for it with no backup.

Raven: He's concerned for his city, and whatever invaded our world and began transforming it has something to do with Batman. Robin has had no contact from him.

Beast Boy: Hey, I lost my parents too, y'know. Everyone on the Teen Titans has a messed-up family, That's one of the reasons why I love the idea of us. We're there for each other. Except Damien. Don't forget, he kicked Kid Flash off the team.

Raven: He's convinced his bullying has helped us, and in a way, he's right.

Aqualad: As the rookie of the team. I'm not sure how much my voice counts…

Starfire: All of our voices count the same, Aqualad.

Aqualad: Damien can be harsh, but he can be kind too, Starfire. He was there for me when my dad showed up. I want to be there for him now that his dad's gone missing.

Starfire: You are right, but we must worry about Robin later. We are arriving. Clearing cloud cover in three, two, one…

**The clear the cloud cover and see Gotham, now looking like something out of Dante's "The Inferno**"

Starfire: X'hal…

Beast Boy: That's Gotham? What are those rings? What happened

**Raven winces, and clutches her head**

Raven: The Fear… All those innocent people… It's unbearable

Aqualad: Guys, I'm only going to ask this one more time, are we sure Robin doesn't have us on a suicide mission?

**They try to land to get a closer look, with Raven's headache getting worse**

Raven: I've never felt nothing like this before. The dark energy coming from the mountain is not of this world...

Starfire: Whatever you are sensing, Raven, I think it is affecting the ship. We will have to land here. I do not think we can fly closer.

NicoB: Good idea.

**Damien and co. land down**

Damien: Then let's get cracking, Teen Titans.

John: Sperg Crew, let's get to work.

**Kojin sees a car coming to a couple and summons Megazowler, who roars, as Beast Boy changes into a rhino**

Kojin: The trick to negotiating the traffic in Gotham, B2?

Beast Boy: Using your horn.

Kojin: Damn right. Megazowler, Horn Ramming Charge.

**Beast Boy and the Dino Monster ram the car, redirecting it into a hydrant, causing a spray of water to erupt from it**, **as Beast Boy gets out a camera phone**

Beast Boy: Beast Boy, at your service. Don't be scared! Here, smile for a selfie.

**He clicks a photo of the two, oblivious to the fact that Kojin, being the immature troll that he is, is photobombing him, meanwhile, Damien hears a humming as NicoB lifts the dude driving and sets him on his Photon Cerberus**

Damien: This way.

Starfire: No, Damien. Can't you see how many people are hurting here? We have to help them now!

John: Starfire's right, you angsty bastard. Their lives are more important then whatever the heart of the city has become.

**They see eldrich monsters lumber up, as Damien gets a curious signal**

Damien: I'm picking up a strange signal coming from the mountain. It could be an SOS

**John, setting another civ on his Dinomist Spinos, for it to take her to safety, looks at him alongside Aqualad**

Aqualad: Hang tight, Dwayne! We need to stick together. You don't know what's behind that wall!

Damien: Okay, first of all, my name is not "Dwayne" and second… I'm sorry, Aqualad. If it IS Batman, I have to go. Stay here Goliath, help the others. Whatever this is, I'll face it alone. Reports are coming in of more cities falling around the world, but Gotham was the first, which means it's the kea. Somehow this is about my father, about our history, and our future as Waynes. Each ring surrounding the mountain has the unmistakable imp rent of Batman's greatest rogues. This is the first. The physical manifestation of a riddle. But I know it's only at the end, at the center of it all, that I'll find the answer to the question father's been wrestling with for such a long time. Why here? Why now? Why us? And how do we end this cataclysm

**The beast nods as John joins up, alongside Kojin, King and NicoB**

NicoB: We're going in too. This is a Sperg Crew matter as well.

**Nico summons his Keyblade, Midnight Blue, Kojin gets out his Sais of the Mad Empress, King gets out his Union Jack broadsword and John gets out his Karambits, Heaven and Hell, as they walk in, hearing the voice of the Riddler echo throughout**

Riddler: Have you ever heard of Pharaoh Amenemhet II? He created a labyrinth in Egypt that consisted of thousands of rooms and courtyards, and also built a brilliant mase inside his own pyramid to thwart tomb raiders. I am the maze-master, Sperg Crew, Robin. And you are the tomb raiders who has wandered into the grave that is Gotham

Damien: Riddler?! Show yourself, coward. Fight me!

**The bratty Wayne opens the door and he, John, Nico, King and Kojin are hit with a blast of blood, nearly goring them on the spikes**

Riddler: I am fighting you all. You all and anyone else who tries to breach Gotham. This maze is my weapon. Down this way lies madness. Down that way lies death. I await you all in the center of the labyrinth, which you'll never be able to find. There, I'll share a riddle which you'll never be able to answer

**A arrow hitts a nearby wall, a rope attached to the rear part of the arrow, as John sees Green Arrow (voiced by Alan Tyudic) hold out a hand**

GA: Grab hold, guys! Stick with me, folks. This place is a murder trap.

John: Green Arrow…

Kojin: What are you doing here, man? Shouldn't you be in Star City?

GA: Besides saving your autistic butts and helping the Hot Topic fan? I just lost my own city to madmen. I came here to help, when the big three went missing. The energy storms in Gotham were getting intense. But then the city just started changing around me. Been trying to find a way out ever since.

**John sees a spike ball headed his way, and dodges it**

Kojin: Well, keep trying. I don't need help from someone who is better at archery then John is at wining against me.

GA: With that warm and snuggly attitude, I bet you've got a lot of friends.

**They head through the maze**

GA: Already tried that way about an hour ago.

Kojin: No you didn.t

GA: Look, Dinobreath. I've been leaving arrows to mark my progress. You really want to explore a quicksand moat and a trapdoor that drops into a pit of fire, then keep going.

Damien: There is a heavy magnetic charge coming from down this hallway. Strong enough to have dragged your arrow over. Can't you see?

King: What the sodding hell are ya on about, kid?

Damien: The broadhead is moving approximately 5 milimeaters a minute. Which means you went down that hallway an hour ago.

**GA looks over at John**

GA: You know, he reminds me of somebody else who's too smart for her own good.

John: Kojin?

GA: No. He should meet my sister, Emiko. She'd make a helluva Teen Titan.

Damien: No one is a match for my intelligence, except perhaps father.

GA: Yeah… Look, kiddo. I respect your father a great dea;. Don't always see eye to eye, but he's one of the greats. But from what I understand, a lot of this mess came from the fact the he tried to take all this on by himself. That he couldn't let other people in.

Damien: You have no idea what you're talking about.

John: Be careful around that kind of blind devotion. Otherwise, there's no telling where you might end up.

**they head around as Riddler drops one of the riddles he is known for**

Riddler: I am always around, but never seen. I am often avoided but never outrun. I might find you at the end of the road or around the next corner. What am I?

Damien: You are death

**They see a revenant Batman (voiced by Kirk Thornton)**

R!Batman: You failed me, Robin. I needed you and you weren't there for me. You weren't fast enough. I'm dead because of you!

**Robin is a bit spooked, but Nico twirls his Keyblade**

NicoB: It's okay, man. It's not him.

Damien: I know! Don't tell me what I already know! The riddler has created some sort of nightmare based on…

King: What you love most?

Damien: Yes.

**Green Arrow and Nico unleash a series of Arrows and Firaga spells, before a voice (provided by Tara Strong) chips up**

?: Havin' some trouble with the maze, boys?

**The Revenant Batman turns around just in time for a green figure (Voiced by Steve Blum) to chomp him, holding it down for Harley Quinn to smash its skull in, sending gore, blood and brain matter all over the place, even on Nico, who sighs**

Harley: Well, that was stranglely satisfying.

Damien: What are you doing here, Quinn?

John: Besides taking perverse delight in destroying that… Whatever the fuck that thing is, he means.

Harley: Hey, let's just say that it's top secret government blabbity blabbity blah, and let's leave it there so my head doesn't explode. Not to mention, we got hometown pride. If anybody's gonna make Gotham a hellhole, it's us!

**Harley also has a cubic crapload of arrows**

Harley: Say, cupid? These arrows must belong to you? I've been collecting them all over the maze.

**Green Arrow facepalms, King sighs, Kojin, Damien and Nico roll their eyes and John groans**

GA: You have GOT to be kidding me.

Harley: Aww, c'mon. Unclench those tight asses of yours, will ya? I found the center forever ago, I just can't solve the stinking riddle. Ya comin'?

John: How she managed to intern in a loony bin is beyond me.

King: Agreed, besides, I'm not accepting advice from any of you freaks again.

**Damien just tisks**

Damien: Don't ever speak on my behalf again, but I concur.

Harley: Get over yourselves. You gotta fight crazy with crazy! Besides, what other choice do ya have?

**They head to the center of the maze, where they see a giant ass mechanical Minotaur piloted by the Riddler, who is non too happy about being found by our autistic anti-heroes**

Riddler: Two of you couldn't solve the riddle and two of you coudn't find your way to the center of the labyrinth. You're cheating.

Harley: Okay, so we survived the acid, soaked waterslide and razor blade fans. Now all we have to do is get past this last bit of bul.

Kojin: No shit.

King: This isn't the team up anyone was expecting, but we're stronger and smarter-

Harley: And more deliciously psychotic!

King: That too, but we're all 3 of those things together.

Damien: Silence! Give us the riddle and let's be done!

Riddler: If you throw me from a window, I'll leave a grieving wife. Bring me back, but in the door, and you'll see someone giving life. What am I?

**Riddler fires up the mech, its eyes glowing green before it spins its spear around, as Killer Croc roars**

Riddler: Of course it's a lot harder to think with your skull cleaved.

**The others charge into the fray**

Harley: I always wanted to be a rodeo clown!

**King summons The Illusiroy Gentlemen, John summons Cannon Solider, Kojin summons Black Tyranno and Nico summons Photon Crusher to fight the mecha-taur off**

GA: All right, kid. You're convinced you're a genius, right? Time to prove it.

**Arrow fire some arrows as the mechataur clashes with Nico's Photon Crusher, blade to double sided kanabo**

Damien: Do you think a word game can stop me, Nigma? A grieving wife is a widow, Someone who gives life is a doner.

Kojin: Any day now, baby Batman!

Damien: Remove one letter, donor becomes door, ad one letter, widow becomes window, all because of one letter, N! The answer is N!

**Riddler is shocked as John blasts the Mechataur's arm clean off with Cannon Soldier, before Kojin's Black Tyranno chomps the other arm off, Nico then slashes off the legs and then tosses the Keyblade, slicing the head of the mechataur clean off**

Riddler: No! It's N… All because of N…

**John punches the cockpit clean off and lifts Ridder up by the collar**

John: Where's Batman? What have you done to him?

**King picks up a strange card with the same mechanical minotaur**

King: The bloody hell is this thing?

**Green Arrow looks at the card as well**

GA: I found an ancient broadhead beneath gotham, more then a month ago, in a chamber used by the Court of Owls. I'm no Vulcan, but I'd say this is forged from the same metal.

Kojin: Perhaps this is the source of not Gene Simmons' new powers?

Riddler: You idiots. You can't imagine what's coming. You're already dead.

**Harley clears her throat to get their attention**

Harley: Hey, boys? I know this has been a-maze-ing and all but what's say we get the hell out of here?

**John nearly gets a stroke from her lame joke**

John: Someone blow her head off… PLEASE!

**Up on Challenger's Mountain, the Batman who Laughs and Samuel are looking out over Gotham**

BWL: Oh, Edward… You couldn't let go, could you. In the end, you left them a solution. What a lack of imagination, what a waste of a card. I suppose that's why I put you in the outermost ring. Now they'll have to face something much colder and darker. But even so, it's time. Isn't it? Time to throw another wild card into the mix. We can't let them get too close to our master and his pals before the tower's ready. Come now, step out of the shadows. Can you smell their blood on the wind? Are you ready, my most devoted son?

**And out of the shadows, The Batman Who Laughs most devoted son, and leader of all the demented Devil Robins. Dark Damien (Voiced by Scott Menville) walks out**

DD: Yes, Fatherrrr…

**In the Snow Lake part of Gotham, the crew are walking in, John worried that the rest of the Sperg Crew would be able to hold their own**

Damien: The closer we get to the mountain, the stronger the magnetic pull becomes. This maze isn't over. This city is one big maze

Nico: We must've passed into the next realm.

**Harley is shivering**

Harley: Brrr… Should've worn my wool thong…. How ya doing, Croc pot? Not easy being cold-blooded in a place like this, huh?

K. Croc: Hate snow. Want to kill it.

Damien: This way. That's where we need to go. That's where we'll find-

John: No, YOU follow ME, little man.

Kojin: Yeah, you did a nice job back there with that riddle, but you're not in charge of this last time I checked, kid.

**Just then, a voice (provided by Troy Baker) yells out Damien's name**

?: DAMIEN!

Damien: Father?

?: No, not your father, YOUR BROTHER!

Damien: Nightwing

Nightwing: RUN FOR IT!

**The sperg crew and him gun it from a monsterous frost golem along side Harley, Croc, GA, and Damien**

Kojin: FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!

John: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, THIS IS FUCKIN' FUN!

King: Dude, I wouldn't call being chased by a Ymir reject "Fun"

Damien: Just keep running.

GA: King, I think your friend needs some help after this

King: Let me introduce you to someone. His name is shite, Sherlock. His first name's No

Nightwing: YOU ALL NEED HELP!

John: We're Spergs, Grayson, we weren't right since day one!

Nightwing: Fair point!


	7. Chapter 7: A Ring of Ice and Fear

(Apologies for how long it took me to work on this chapter. Things… Came up)

**Arkham Asylum, Mr Freeze hears the crackling of dark energy and the screams of dying guards, before he sees his cell opening up and he goes to investigate**

Mr. Freeze: My cell is open. What's going on?

**as he goes out of the heated cell, he sees Humpty Dumpty (Voiced by Mike Pollock) out as well**

Humpty Dumpty: Broken in. Can't be put back together again.

**He then sees a familiar yet disturbingly different silloette**

BWL: Victor Fries… You will be free as long as you promise to play with me.

Mr. Freeze: Mein gott… What are you?

**BWL pulls out a card**

BLW: Take this card and I will give you the power to create whatever you desire.

**Freeze takes the card as his power slowly upgrades**

Mr. Freeze: Who invites Mr. Freeze? Are you Batman? Or are you Joker?

BWL: I am something more, from down. Down, down among the gnashing teeth. A place colder and darker then your frigid heart

**In the Snow Lake, Nightwing and co. with King as well as his Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6, John and his Ancient Gear Soldier, Kojin and his Seiyaryu, and Nico with his Photon Saber Tiger, are fighting a Frost Golem**

Nightwing: It seems like I'm not the only one who looked a little suprise to step into a barren frigged wasteland populated by Frost Golems where a major U.S. metropolis used to be. It's been three days since a mountain appeared in Gotham City and Batman told me about the existence of a Dark Mutiverse. Now I'm stuck fighting alongside Damien Wayne, the latest to inherit the mantle of Robin. Killer Croc, the monstrous wrestler turned part time hero. Harley Quinn, the Joker's paramour, Green Arrow, the Emerald Archer, and a quartet of nerds calling themselves the "Sperg Crew" It's been two damn days since he asked me and the Batfamily to distract the JLA os he could retrieve a secret weapon, then went radio silent. One day since I came to Gotham to find it transformed into chaos by batman's worse villains.

**As Nightwing tries to rapell it down, the giant slams its fist down, knocking the first robin to the deck**

Nightwing: Not how I would have chosen to spend a long weekend, honestly. Ice and tights do not mix. Good thing I stopped by the Batcave and picked up this thermal armor Bruce had made for me. It's his version of an ugly sweater. He just wants me to stay warm.

**Nightwing tugs with all his might**

Nightwing: HHNNNN. This way. Get that thing moving this way!

Harley: **to King** What's he goin' on about

King: Dunno.

**Croc smirks, meanwhile**

Croc: Hnn… The sun puts it at 5:15. I get what you're doing, kid! It's rush hour in Gotham and the automated el train runs in rain or snow

**Croc roars and drop kicks the Frost Golem**

John: I get it too. Ancient Gear Soldier, Rapid Fire Flurry!

**The clockpunk monster fires off blasts of energy, providing support fire to Croc, before John and the reptillian monster double drop kicks the monster in front of the elevated tracks, and has its head shattered by the El Train, ripping it in half**

Harley: Yay, he rolled a natural twenty!

GA: I'm… Going to pretend I didn't get that reference.

Croc: Ya can take the kid outta Gotham, but ya can't take the Batman out of the kid.

**Damien walks up, understandably pissed**

Damien: Nightwing, THIS is what you meant when you said you had to "Take care of something"? How DARE you search for my father without me! We could've found Batman by now if you hadn't left me behind with this would-be nanny and these pathetic excuses for super-criminals… Nightwing?

**Nightwing feel his head wound open up, blood pouring down it**

Damien: Your head… The Wound you received…

Nightwing: From Deathwing with Simon Hurt's Black Blade. It reappeared after we left the Justice League in the amazon. It's what drew me here toward the mountain. And it's been getting worse the longer I follow that.

**They see one of Mister Terriffic's T-Spheres, which hovers up and flies off**

Damien: What is it?

Nightwing: I was chasing it when my chilly buddy and I ran into you guys. Whatever it is, it knows something we don't.

GA: What if it's leading us into a trap?

Nightwing: Worse then a frozen city populated by monsters?

GA: Touche. It'll be good to have an adult around, Nightwing.

Kojin: What are you… HEY!

**Nightwing and GA shake hands**

Nightwing: Thanks for keeping an eye on Robin.

Damien: WHAT?! You're taking his side against your own family? If everyone is going to ally themselves against me, I'd be better off with the Teen Titans.

**In the innermost circle of Gotham, Beast Boy, now an octopus, is fending off ax-crazy civilians**

Beast Boy: We'd have been better off with Damian. At least you know when he's going to be a jerk, which is always

**Raven is clutching her head**

Raven: I can feel their terror and confusion, Beast Boy. And… It's getting worse

Starfire: Raven's right. Judge less and prevent more injuries.

Beast Boy: I can't tell who's a looter and who's a lootee anymore!

**Beast Boy them sees a whole bunch of rioters charging in**

Beast Boy: Don't look now, but a whole bunch of them are about to terrify and confuse us to death!

Aqualad: As the newest member here, I'll ask. What the hell do we do?!

**They then see a giant monsterous demon, plasma blasts, and beams of light and they gun it, as the titans see the rest of the Sperg Crew, Yong, Josh, GB, Rikion, Ben, Josh F. and Chris, as well as their allies alongside Deadshot (Voiced by Matthew Mercer), Enchantress (Voiced by Brandy Kopp), Captain Boomerang (voiced by Greg Ellis), El Diablo (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal)**

Deadshot: You can say a lot about super-villians, but at least we don't send fuckin' kids to do our jobs for us.

Cpt. Boomerang: Nice work, Enchantress. They'd run faster if their pants weren't so full of shit.

**The quartet just look at the anti-heroes, Beast Boy turning back to normal**

Raven: I can feel eyes from the darkness.

Starfire: Of that I have little doubt. That's Deadshot, Captian Boomerang, Enchantress and El Diablo and the rest of the Sperg Crew and their comrades.

Aqualad: I'm ready to rumble if you guys are, I think.

Deadshot: Put it away, you little monsters. We're not here to fight it out with the Justice League Jr. Fan Club. We're all good guys here.

**Meanwhile, the Dark Damien is looking from the shadows alongside an evil version of (voiced by Ryan Drummond). However, back in the Frozen Lake, Green Arrow is marking a tree with an arrow, much to Kojin's annoyance**

Kojin: Marking your way with an arrow again? That's old-fashioned and unoriginal. Like you.

Nightwing: _When I was cut by Dr. Hurt's dark metal, it showed me terrible things._

GA: You got a better idea, Shinigami? In case you haven't noticed, the farther along we go, the less anything inveted after the middle ages works. I hope you and your buddies saved your high scores.

King: Hmph. Of course we did.

John: Nightwing, we still got eyes on the ball?

Nightwing: _I thought it had poisoned my blood, transmuted it somehow, like some ancient alchemy. But now, I have a pit in my stomach. Like when you suddenly remember that you left the stove on. Becuase this isn't my first rodeo with mysterious metals. __Years ago, Batman discovered Electrum in one of my teeth. Traces in my blood. Latent, Waiting for a trigger. The Owls put it ther__e. My whole life, they'd secretly prepared me to be a weapon. A talon. After I took down their network, I thought I was free of them, but what if I'm not_

**Croc, meanwhile, is coming down with a cold**

Harley: IT's just hangin' ten and Nightwing is still bleedin' all over his prettyboy face.

Nightwing: IT's like it wants us to see something here, in Newhouse park.

**Croc growls, feeling more under the weather**

Harley: You okay, Crocky? You sound like my grandma's cat. You got a scale ball or somethin'?

Crock: It's so… c-c-c-c-c-cold. I'm not feelin' so good..

**Croc unleashes the mother of all sneezes, sending the snow flying in all directions, showing a statue of the Court of Owls**

Croc: Guh… Cold blood, man.

King: Quinn, look.

**Harley sees where King is pointing and sees a statue of the Owl**

Harley: Oooh, Court of Owls

John: I thought Batman removed all of these from Gotham.

King: He did, dude. This is a first, even for me.

GA: Why would a defunct secret society suddenly make a reapperance right when everything when to hell?

**A massive ice pillar erupts from underneith Arrow and he dodges, before knocking an arrow, as John gets out his Karambits, King, his broadsword, Harley, her mallet, Robin, his sword, and Nightwing, his escrima sticks**

Mr Freeze: Yes, Hell, as described by Dante, with its multiple rings. Each one is guarded by a devil

**They hear rumbling and see Frost Golems, which they roar at our motley crew**

GA: We got company.

John: Big, ugly company.

**Profetens Apenbering by Gorgoroth starts playing as, through the snow, they see a pair of glowing red eyes**

Mr. Freeze: And at the bottom of the universe is a lake of ice

**They see Mr .Freeze in nothing but a kilt and armored cups, his hand engulfed in ice, and armed with a massive sword made of ice**

Mr. Freeze: I am Freeze. I was chosen to guard this realm. All that enters here turns cold, becomes brittle and breaks!

King: Well, Freeze, you'll find that we're a hard bunch to freeze!

**King charges and clashes with him sword to sword, King skillfully dodging strikes and parrying, before Freeze switches for a pair of icy kitana and disarms King, before kicking the Essex based sperg to the snow and lunging at him with both blades poised high**

Mr. Freeze: A frozen tomb awaits!

**King rolls out of the way, and kicks Freeze in the hamstring of his outside leg, forcing him to a knee, before rolling over his back, as John summons Cannon Soldier and Vampire Lord to go after the Frost Giants, while he then scales up one and decapitates them**

Freeze: Tsk… I will not fall to a pair of Spergs.

King: Hate to bloody break it to you, but you're screwin' with the wrong two spergs…

**Back in the outermost circle, Kojin and co. are conversing with the Suicide Squead**

Enchantress: Your beast is wonderful. What's his name?

Raven: Goliath is not mine. But do me a favor and back off, elder goth. That means you too, four eyes.

Ben: Excuse me? I'll have you know that I'm the grandson of a Titan, the son of the Elder Goddess, Cetrion and the god of all Pasta Monsters.

Raven: My dad's the devil, your point?

**Ben backs off**

Ben: … Got me there.

Kojin: Fine, we're on the same page, Deadshot, but we Spergs don't assoicate with criminals and mercenaries.

Deadshot: And I don't usually hang out with grade-schoolers and short bus kids.

GB: You reallly wanna be punished, don't you? 

Deadshot: Lady, I'm not into that stuff, okay?

GB: Your loss, Lawton.

Deadshot: However, Quinn and Croc are missing and-

Josh: Guys…?

BB: What's wrong, Josh, you forgot to feed that archer again?

Josh: No. Do you hear… Chattering? They're saying "Crow"

**And sure enough, as For Whom the Bells Toll by Metalica starts playing, they see an army of Crows**

Josh: Right, Sperg Crew, let's get to work!

Josh (Firecracker): You got it!

**Josh transforms into his Tyrant Alien form, and swings his tail at several Crows, sending the little demons flying as Josh unsheathes his Lightsworn Sabre at lightning speeds, before sheathing his blade, causing the demonic mooks of the Batman Who Laughs to fall to pieces**

Josh G: Josh, no matter how much I see that form, I can never get used to it.

Josh F.: I get that a LOT.

**In another part, GB is swinging her plasma whips around, cutting down Robins, as well as imps and the occasional Mancubus with the grace of a gymnast, before kicking one of the demons in the mush with her stiletto, crushing its throat, before kicking another one down and stomping on its chest, grinding her heel into its torso so that Kojin can summon out Cyberdark Keel, who stabs the demon with its wings**

Kojin: Damn, GB, if I'd known you'd be a freak like that, I'd signed your application forum for ya.

GB: Focus on crowd control, Kojin, before I grind your torso into dust.

**Kojin squeaks, and nods, scared of her sadism**

Kojin: Y-Yes ma'am.

**Nico, meanwhile, is unleashing various magic attacks at several Possessed and Barons of Hell**

Nico: Damn… Guess I'll have to break out the heavy artillery 'ginst these demon… Demons.

**Nico summons Midnight Blue**

Nico: Itoryoudan… Zantetsuken!

**Nico vanishes and reappears behind the demons, who slowly slump over, limbs and heads falling off and artieral bloodspray turning the streets a dark crimson as he walks away from the carnage he just created**

Starfire: Titans, together!

Deadshot: Shoot these damn things!

**They unleash a barrage of energy and bullets as Beast Boy turns into a bear and roars, swatting their heads appart**

BB: This is my worse nightmare! An army of Robins.

**They look up and see a dark version of Robin and Exe**

MCP!Exe: Indeed, Garfield Logan. The name of the dark is Robin.

Dark Damien: And he dwells within all of you.

**Back with our heroes in the Lake of ice, Nightwing and co are fighting a losing battle**

Nightwing:_ The metal showed me a rolling cauldron of failed worlds, and in each of those worlds, a version of me who made the wrong choice, who was broken by loss, who went down the wrong path, who was alone._

Nightwing: The owl statue! Hit it

Crock: Ya hear this kid? He thinks he's the boss now! Hmph

**Croc turns the statue away and a door opens to a crypt**

Damien: Nightwing is correct. The owls guard the nest from their Shadow Perch. Whatever freeze wants, the owl is guarding over it.

King: So whatever Freeze wants, the owl is guarding it. Gotcha

.

GA: We'll be putting our backs against a wall, man! Hope your other autists have planned a helluva escape for the others

John: Knowing Benny, he has. Just trust me

**Back outside the outermost circrle, the Teen Titans and the Suicide Squad out outmatched and outnumbered until Ben lands down**

Ben: Okay, you freaks, ready to tangle with a demigod?

**One demon roars**

Ben: ZRUAKA!

**Ben unleashes a massive earthen knuckle that sends some demons and crows flying, before creating two blood swords, and slowing time down, before using them to create a glyph**

Ben: KENITOA!

**An explosoin of blood sends the rest of them flying, as Ben dusts his hands**

Ben: Okay, I should take the rest of you to Shang Tsung's island.

BB: Dude, that was AWESOME!

**Ben chuckles sheepishly as he rubs his head, before opening an sand portal to said island**

Josh G: There's our ticket outta here.

**They gun it with the Titans and the squad, as John, King, Nico and co. land in a strange crypt as GA just sighs and roles his eyes**

King: I've met my fare share of other super lot lately. If there's one thing they'll say about you if we make it out of this shiteshow alive, it's that you earned that, Nightwing

Nico: C'mon, let's demon go, guys.

**they land in armory**

Damien: Nightwing, where did you lead us?

Nightwing: The armory.

King: What… What is it?

HQ: I'll tell ya what it is, Mistah K...It's the bar mitzvah of my murder dreams

Nightwing: _When Batman told me that he'd been prepared to be a doorway for Barbatos to come to our world. I told him what I have seen. He said what he always says. To let him worry about what's in the dark. But what if Dr. Hurt knew something even he didn't? What if this was the Owls' plan all along? If Bruce is the doorway, what if I'm the weapon?_

**Olie picks up an arrow**

GA: The Arrow. Just like the ones I found when I was last in Gotham. What is this place?

Nightwing: It's metal. The metal. The kind Robin and I encountered. That's somehow connected to Barbatos the demon. The owls have been holding it. Preparing. Now we're the only ones left to fight.

Damien: Fight? What fight?! We wonder blind and dumb, when we should be looking for Batman!

**Damien punches his brother hard in the face, causing him to stagger back**

Damien: The Teen Titans question whether I can be trusted! Green Arrow believes I'm nothing more then a child playing dress up! And YOU believe you know best, like ALWAYS! You never doubt! What is WRONG with you?!

**Nightwing dodges another punch and slams the little toolshed down**

Nightwing: I don't always know what's best, but I do know that we've been here before. You and me, searching for Batman. Wherever he is, we'll find him like we did before… Like family.

**Nightwing breaks down into sobs, before Croc puts a hand on his shoulder**

KC: Aw. Hey, I miss my Auntie Flowers, too. Now that we're all done sobbin', seems like it'd be a real shame to let all this go to waste.

**Outside, Freeze points his sword, ready to finish the fight**

Freeze: Open the earth for me, my giants! I claim this realm and everything in it!

**They roar, and as I Bring The Darkness starts playing, the armored ragtag band walk out, John looking more like Jon Snow**, **as Green Arrow fires off two arrows at a frost giant, dropping it, everyone, in badass gear, is tearing through the giants**

Nightwing: _When the mountain rose up in Gotham, I could feel its gravitational pull from Bludhaven_

GA: We all look hot, so let's warm Freeze up

Nightwing:_ I could feel its poison pouring into the sky_

Mr Freeze: Nein! The court's armory belongs to me.

**He fires off a blast of ice from his off hand, hitting King and K****iller Crock**** dead on and ****freezing**** them solid**

Mr Freeze: I will pick the pieces off of your brittle corpses.

**Freeze spins his sword around before John lashes at his hamstring**

Nightwing: _So when Bruce vanished after we fought the Justice League and their autistic allies, I knew I had to come here. To save the city I once called home from the darkness_

**Nightwing melts them free of their prision**

Nightwing: Are you ready, Dr. Quinzel

**Harley gets ready for… Something**

Harley: Gimme a second longer with the view, would ya?

Nightwing: HARLEY!

**The former Arkham intern rolls her eyes, sighing**

Harley: Okay, fine.

**She shatters the ice, as Croc, Nightwing and John charge**

John: CHARGE!

Nightwing: _To be there for my friends so they weren't alone. And to stop them from going down the unlit path. Becuase it's only going to get worse from here._

**Freeze fires an ice wave, from his swrod and charges at the First Robin**

Freeze: He gave me the power! And I desire a frozen, silent land!

**King summons Summoned Skull**

King: Man, Gotham does do freakshow weirdos better than anybody. Dark Lightning!

**Summoned Skull fires off a blast of electricity that hits all the frost giants and blinds Freeze**

Nightwing: Now! The sword! Hit the sword!

John: Robin, King, NOW!

Robin: I know the plan! Don't boss me around!

Nightwing: _In the armory, I told Damien I had faith we'd find Batman like we always do. I lied. The truth is, I'm having visions again. Of failure. Of unlit paths. But they're not visions of me. And they're not of some distant world. _

**Using Simon Hurt's blade, Damien slashes the sword out of of Freeze's hands, sending it into the air, only for King to drop kick it into Freeze's leg, and shatter it**

Damien: I am Robin! I am the heir to the Bat.

King: Yeah, and you're a bloody menace. Though I suppose that comes in handy sometimes.

**Damien keeps whaling on Freeze, only for Nightwing to restrain him**

Nightwing: Robin! Stop! STOP! It's over! It's over…

**John picks up another card**

King: What is it, dude?

John: Another card-

**A T-Sphere ganks it**

John: What the hell?

**King sighs and looks over at the group, ready to head back to the island**

King: We're playing someone's sodding game, running their bloody maze, and they've got the advantage that they can see it from above.

**Nightwing clutches his head, screaming in pain as a sand portal opens**

King: Nightwing? You okay?

Nightwing: _Like a drumbeat in my head, one name keeps repeating… Barbatos. Visions… The Darkness… Calling…_

Nightwing: Guh… Trust me, King. IT's not above anything.

**They head back to the island with a wounded nightwing in tow, and GB starts tending to him, before looking at her**

Nightwing: Y'know… Bruce always had this little joke he used to say when he'd leave and put me in charge.

GB: Oh? And what's this "joke" of his?

Nightwing: He'd always say… **clears throat, so he can do his best Batman impression** "Keep the lights on until I get back" This time, he left that last part off.

**GB can't help but chuckle at the bat's sense of humor as Kojin rolls his eyes, meanwhlie, underneath the island, Deadshot is looking around, his eye glowing in the dimly lit cavern, when he stumbles upon Goro's Lair**

Deadshot: What the hell…

**Shang Tsung walks out from the shadows, looking at Lawton **

Shang Tsung: I trust you are enjoying my island, Mr Lawton?

Deadshot: If this were a vacation, I'd say yes. Now then, where am I… Wait, that kid… He sent me here.

Shang Tsung: Yes, the spawn of the Crimson King and Cetrion, wasn't he?

Deadshot: Hmph. Get to the god damned point as to who that is.

Shang Tsung: Out of all my champions, Floyd Lawton, I miss Goro most. You're lucky he's dead. He would have eaten you for daring to enter his lair uninvited.

**An ice sphere then appears and Floyd shoots it with fire bullets**

Sub-Zero (Voiced by Steve Blum): I would not expect we would meet again, Deadshot

Deadshot: Heh, right back atcha, pal. Say. You wouldn't happen to see a crazy former intern and a walking handbag around here, did you?

Sub-Zero: I have not seen Waylon Jones or Harleen Quinzell in this island. However, the path forward is long, hard and uncertain, and the light is dwindling. Right now, we need all the help we can get

Deadshot: Yeesh, first you compare me to some cowboy and then you say some creepy crap like that? You must not get out much, do you?

**The two go their seperate ways, and once Nightwing is 100%m Kronika sends him back into the fray, in Challenger's Mountain, however, Beo walks with the Dark Damien **

Beo: Speak, little bird. What did you find out?

Dark Damien: Those damnable spergs have defeated Freeze.

Beo: My oh my… That's not how we wanted the game to go, now is it?

Samuel: Hehehehe… We must deal them a new hand of cards then. One packed with Jokers.

**Demon versions of Starfire, Deadshot, El Diablo, Enchantress, Captain Boomerang, Beast Boy and Aqualad walk out, corrupted and twisted and devolved to their darkest insticnts by the dark god's magic alongside the Batman Who Laugh's joker toxin, as all 3 share a haunting laugh**


	8. Chapter 8: Welcome to the Jungle

**CADMUS HQ, Richmond, Virginia, 18 hours ago, The Suicide Squad is getting a breifing about working with the sperg crew from their handler, one Amanda Waller (voiced by CCH Pounder)**

Harley:_ You always need a different perspective. Take Amanda Waller. Ms doom gloom_._She made us the Suicide Squad, and unlike the movie, she made a smart call, but with a name like that, you have to look on the bright side. Maybe we're not heroes, but sometimes, you need bad people to do the right thing_

Amanda Waller: Gotham has become hell on earth. I'm not going to sugercoat it. I have no idea how any of this is possible, and neither do the fifty people I pay to know how anything is possible.

**Waller pulls up footage of the events of Chapter 3**

Amanda Waller: Three days a go, a giant mountain grew out of the center of downtown Gotham City, teeming with impossible energy. Last night, that energy field expanded to take over the entire Gotham metropolitian area, and the city started to change. What it's changing into is a mystery that I need solved now. Our statalites are blind to it. I need eyes on the ground. I need you to get right to the heart of the madness, and if whatever happened to Gotham is spreading, I need you to stop it. No matter the cost.

**Croc looks crestfallen**

KC: No…

**Croc cracks his neck and roars**

KC: NOT MY CITY!

Harley: Damn straight.

**Fast forward to now, King and John are standing back to back, the former having just summoned out Phoenix Gearfried and the latter, Dark Magician, cutting down armies of Man-Bats, as blasts of fire and magic permeate the desert, alongside the occasional arrow, as they are on top of a moving bus**

John: King, we're gonna die.

King: Really? What makes you say that, dude?

**Inside said bus, Robin and Harley are bickering, as Croc is just along for the ride**

Harley: Yo! Robin! Get off! Yer too young to drive, and it is my civic duty as a responsible, crazy, hugely attractive adult with a giant mallet to-

John: You'll kill us all, Quinn, you god-damned lunatic! That's a huge chasm dead ahead!

KC: Croc hate school buses…

**Harley smirks**

Harley: All passengers, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright and locked position!

Damien: That's airplanes, not Buses

Harley: Oh yeah!

**King and John's faces turn deathly pale**

King: Oh shite… She wouldn't.

John: She would, King.

**They drive off the chasm**

Harley: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! FLYIN' HIGH AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!-

**A record scratch is heard and Alice Carol (Voiced by Carrie Savage) walks on screen and bows to the reader in a polite manner**

Alice: You know, reader, with hands over eyes. I'm amazed to think that in this brief oasis moment of frozen Lucidity, amist the Tumult and Metalica music, that they're actually going to make it. They are definitely going to make it. She's an excellent driver. And now back to your regularly planned chaos.

**She walks off and time resumes, as the bus falls**

Harley: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! WHO'S FUCKING IDEA WAS IT AGAIN?!

Damien: QUINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

KC: CROC DON'T WANNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAA DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

**Something breaks their fall, and John faceplants onto a… plant**

John: Ugh… **slowly gets up, trying to shake the cobwebs**

Harley: We… Uh… Seem to have hit something that has, like, totally broken our fall… Smells like Broccoli.

King: Oh, you just now noticed that?

**Arrow hops down on the forest of plants, and Damien slowly crawls out, and readjusts his shoulder, which popped out of its socket**

GA: Hay, nice job, Quinn. What? You saw all this down here and figured it'd catch us

Harley: Erm… Yeah, that was exactly my plan, green arrow.

**King sneezes**

King: Damn hay fever… Where's that witch when I need her?

**the vines come to life and pulls the rest of them out**

GA: Look out!

Nightwing: They're alive!

John: Oh, hold on a minute… This power… I know what's goin' on here. Get ready for the grand entrance.

**Out of a giant bud, struts Poison Ivy (Voiced by Taisa Valenza), who looks at her prey, with one snatching her interest, the Red Demon, the man she spent time looking for**

King: Ya know her, dude?

John: Yeah. It's all good. It's Poison Ivy, and she's got two Godzilla sized monstrous plants.

Ivy: Who dares enter my green realm of death? Prepare to be consumed and transformed into bio-organic fuel for the glory of the Green.

KC: Croc is green.

GA: So am I.

Nightwing: I don't think that counts, Green Arrow.

**Ivy struts past the others, and looks at the Red Demon**

John: I'm guessing you made this ring yours?

Ivy: Smart as always, darling.

Harley: Bestie! OMG! That's why you caught my flying buss of doom. You were saving me! There's some good left in this stinking city after all!

Ivy: I caught all of you as a spider catches the fly. You are food to be first liquidized and then consumed.

John: Ivy… This isn't you…

Ivy: I know, that's why I wanted his help, so that nothing can come between us.

Harley: This city… It's freaking me out, red. It all feels like him. Y'know. I could really use a friend right now. Please…

**Ivy thinks it over**

Ivy: Eat the insane one first.

**Ivy's plants snarl and pounce at Harley**

Harley: You're the crazy one right now! Not me! This ain't you.! I know this ain't you! Whatever's going on here, gimme my friend back!

Ivy: Ah, the futile screams of the doomed meal...My realm shall grow and rise and-

**Blasts of fire hit Ivy, freeing Harley from her fate as Demon Starfire (voiced by Hylden Walch) lands down, snarling like a rabbid animal as Volt (Voiced by Travis Willingham) rests his sword over his shoulder**

Volt: Prepare to hear your plants burn! He has ordered me to retrieve these souls, for Lord Beo has plans for them.

Nightwing: Volt… What did you do to Kori!

Harley: The evil's got Starfire.

King: No Harley, Beo created a demon from her DNA, she's safe in Shang Tsung's Island.

**Imps and Minotaurs then charge in, tearing the plants apart as Walk with Me In Hell by Lamb of God starts playing**

Ivy: No! Don't hurt my beauties!

Harley: Uh, those freaks're actually facilitatin' our escape.

**Fire starts burning around them from this mess**

John: Don't question it, JUMP

**John jumps, landing on a brittle plant bridge, which falls apart under his weight**

Nightwing: I have to get Starfire. Wherever this island is, I have to make sure she's safe-

Harley: Uh, I hate to be the one to keep the team on mission and all, but we got a mission, Nightwing. We gotta get to that damn mountain.

John: Harley's right. We don't want whatever Beo did to Starfire's DNA to happen to us. Batman will be at the heart of darkness. We have to move fast

Harley: I am? Whoa

Nightwing: Okay, Robin. We find Batman, we save them all. We climb.

John: Right. Ivy? You said nothin's gonna come between us right?

Ivy: Yes.

John: Time to put up or shut up.

**using vines to cover their escape, the ragtag group lifts themselves up upon a rockface, Imps and Kuroinu goons trying to impede their progress**

Harley: _Best friend tries to kill ya, so no way to go from that but up, right?_

**Nightwing and John get up to the top of the chasm**

John: Huff… Okay, we're up. We made it, we…

**John sees demon versions of the rest of the titans, Suicide Squad and Goliath, all corrupted by Beo's DNA, or rather "Created" by said DNA, as Painkiller by Judas Priest starts playing**

King: Dude, what's up- Oh bloody hell…

Dark Damian: That's right, you fool. Tell them, tell the others. The end of your story is already here. There is no hope left in Gotham

Robin: The teen titans… My whole team… Goliath… WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THEM, YOU MONSTER!?

MCP!Exe: Simple… We introduced them to Beo's DNA…

**Nightwing's head throbs harder then normal, like it's going to burst like a balloon**

Nightwing: Ugh… Batman? I don't understand…. What am I… Seeing?

**A flashback shows Batman conversing with the former Robin**

Nightwing: No… Batman…

Dark Damian: Batman? You want to know what happened to your batman? Let me tell you, Robin to Robin.

**Meanwhile, Harley is squaring up to the evil Kori**

Harley: Okay. Query. What's more powerfu? A demonic alien space princess or a really big mallet?

**the demonic Kori fires off a blast of Argent Energy at the mallet, blasting it appart**

Harley: Do tell, do tell…

**A demonic version of Beast Boy (Voiced by Josh Myers) meanwhile, is fighting against Croc and King**

Demon!Beast Boy: Interlopers shall pay the ultimate price!

KC: Inter-what? This is my city!

King: Damn right it is. And besides, Nami's lookin' for a new fur coat anyways.

**Meanwhile, John and Green Arrow are fighting against Demonic versions of Deadshot and Captain Boomerang (Voiced by Chris Cox and Liam McIntyre respectively)**

John: Huh. Evil Versions of the Suicide Squad? I mean… What's the difference.

Green Arrow: Come on then, freaks!

**The two duke it out, John summoning Lich Lord, King of the Underworld, and getting into a long range fight with the evil Deadshot, and winning, while Ollie throws down with the nightmarish Captain Boomerang, when a demonic version of Enchantress (voiced by April Stewart) charges dark energy**

Demon!Enchantress: Your struggles are for naught! Gotham descends into the blood dance of-

**Nightwing drop kicks the eviler mage**

King: Okay, it's official. We've gone full prog rock.

John: Never pegged you as someone who liked that genre.

GA: I thought you'd like J-Pop.

King: Just saying.

**A plant erupts from the ground, as Ivy, now super-berserk, joins the fray**

Ivy: The Batman who Laughs gave me the card!

GA: Actually, on second thought, nope. Wasn't full, it turns out.

Ivy: This is my realm, Volt, and the Green will not be harm

Volt: Sorry, plant whore, Lord Beo's orders.

**Harley looks over at me as we fight Kin and Hicks**

Harley: Oh, this reminds me of the time I forgot to water her plants once. She got mad then, too.

John: Yeah? There's a difference between fighting sexist mercenaries, and demons and just forgetting to water some flowers?

Ivy: Need some help then?

John: Yeah.

**As Ivy, fed up with the BS of Beo and his minions screwing over her realm, joins the fray, wrapping a vine around Hicks, and slamming him around like a Kuroinu sized pinball, before yeeting him aside, before turning his attention to Kin and blows plant toxins in the mercenary's face. She then turns the stage into a jungle, which is modified by her card whereupon a monstrous-looking Venus Flytrap pulls the opponent in with its vinelike tongue and begins chewing the opponent before she pulls them out of the monster's mouth. The Kuroinu then crashes into his comrade and into a Demonic El Inferno (voiced by Doug Erholtz)**

Harley: Wow, Red, that was awesome!

Ivy: Let's focus on getting you out of here.

**Meanwhile, Nightwing is now fighting the Dark Damien as Ace of Spades by Motorhead starts playing, as he is getting destroying.**

Dark Damien: My father told me to make some new friends in his allies, although you were always up for a good time in my world, C'mon, play with me, Nightwing!

**Nightwing barely dodges this freakshow's attacks**

Nightwing: Too fast… What ARE you.

Dark Damien: Oh, Richard… I've ALWAYS been faster then you.

Ivy: NO!

**She drags the little demon by the legs and slams him like a demonic metronome with a vine, before tossing him into one of the Burning plants, crushing his leg, before breaking down into sobs**

Ivy: My child… My Baby… What have they done?

Harley: Red, c'mon. You're still my friend. I can get you outta here. Help us and-

Ivy: Get away from me…

**Ivy backfists her friend, causing her to stagger back, as John summons Cannon Soldier, who fires off a blast at a nearby tree, crushing a few orcs as Kickstart my Heart by Motley Crue starts playing**

John: Nightwing, you can't fight that thing! It's killin' you!

King: John's right. It'll kill the lot of us unless we run!

**Dark Damien slowly gets up, favoring the leg that Ivy crushed**

Dark Damien: Tell them the truth, Grayson. There is nowhere to run.

**Croc snarls, ripshit pissed off at this juncture**

KC: Croc has had about enough of this.

**Harley slowly gets up, spitting out a tooth**

Harley: Yeah, you and me both, Waylon. Hmm… I've been hit harder, but that hurt

Nightwing: John, you and King go with the others. That thing wants me. I'll give you time to get clear. Find Batman. That… Robin… It's an INSULT to the Uniform! GO!

**As The Unforgiven by Metalica starts playing (All 3 parts to be exact), Croc lumbers up and puts a hand on Grayson's shoulder, moving him aside**

KC: No. Croc will hold it. If anyone can find the bat, it is you.

King: What? You're Killer bloody Croc! You're going to sacrifice yourself to save our arses? Why?

KC: I don't care about saving Batman, screw him. I care about Gotham. No one eats Gotham.

Harley: Wow, it is akin to Henry V's Agincourt speech.

John: Now I feel the sudden urge to doze off…

GA: I think he's saying he's a hero.

**Nightwing's head throbs again**

Nighteing: He's coming… I can feel it!

**Dark Damien lumbers through the fire, snarling like a rabbid animal before sharpening his claws**

Dark Damien: You know the truth, Nightwing. Come join your brother. Give in to the dark metal.

**Killer Croc lunges in, spearing the demonic monster**

KC: Shaddup with your nonsense! ALL CROC ALL CARNIVORE! EAT YOUR FACE!

**Everyone cringes a bit in (understandable) fear**

Harley: Croc's gotta have a more family friendly battle cry…

**Dark Damien does a step up Enzugiri, knocking him down before stabbing him in his shoulder blades before the monster flips him over his shoulder**

KC: They used to call Killer Croc "the meanest bastard in sports entertainment", now when I save Gotham, they'll call me the guy who iced the darkness.

Dark Damien: Wishful thinking, you overgrown snakeskin boot.

**As they fight, GA sees that stupid T-Sphere**

GA: The floating metal ball… It's back.

**Croc then feels the Dark Damien slash his legs, before he drop**s

KC: GO! RUN! SAVE GOTHAM!

**Dark Damien then knees Croc down and lunges, viciously and violently clawing at the scaly opponent's abdomen, effectively tearing him open, as Harley fights the urge to cry.**

Harley: Aw rats, now I got the feelings…

King: Quinn, let's go!

**They gun it, with Ivy following them, willingly giving up her card**

Harley: Red… I realized somethin'.

Ivy: What is it?

**Harley, fighting back tears, just sits down as they make it to Nightmare Wonderland**

Harley: Maybe this isn't a place for heroes. Maybe it's not even a place for crazy… Maybe this really is a suicide mission. We can't keep doin' this… This place… It's… It's like a nightmare.

**King is busy fighting a big ass Cheshire Cat, manned by hostile versions of the Card Soldiers (AKA dudes dressed as said soldiers) **

GA: One you can't wake up from…

King: Yeah.

**King summons Illusionist Faceless Mage, who fires off a blast of energy that sends them all flying**

Nightwing: We're finally getting closer to the Mountain…

**Nightwing falls on his hands and knees, screaming in anguish**

King: Nightwing, Don't give me that stoic "I'm fine" shite. You've been actin' like more and more of a psycho the closer we get.

**Mad Hatter, who owns this circle, tips his hat up, a shit eating grin on his face**

Mad Hatter: If you are mad, come join us! There's room for more… Many more… Heh heh…

**Everyone looks at each other, then at Mad Hatter, then at each other again, hopelessly confused**

King: The bloody hell is he on about?

John: I… I dunno…

Harley: Mad Hatter! Now we're talkin'! My kinda part-

**Ivy wraps a vine around bother her legs as John summons Hyper Hammerhead and hops on**

John: Quinn!

**they head away from the fun**

Harley: Spoilsports…

Nightwing: I… I don't know how to explain this, but I've been seeing things. Visions, So many of them, each one different then the last. The Dark Robin… Robin, it's you from some other world. A darker world

Damien: What are you talking about, Dick?

Nightwing: His Batman became some kind of monster, and he chose to follow him.

Damien: I Wouldn't…. I would never…

John: What… What did he mean when he said "tell him the truth", What truth?

Ivy: Is there something you're not telling us, boy wonder?

Nightwing: I think… I think I've been seeing Bruce… Our Bruce… And he's sinking into the metal, it's consuming him… He's screaming…

Damien: No…

John: Damien, I'm sorry… I don't think we're going to find him here… I don't think we're gonna find him anywhere… He saw Batman… He's dead.

Damien: No! You're wrong. You're not his son! You wouldn't know!

John: Robin… I…

Damien: Batman is not dead! He's not… He's… He's…

**John hops off and breaks down into tears, sobbing**

John: I-I'm sorry.

Harley: This place, Red, King… Croc a martyr, Red tryin' to kill me, Batman dead…

King: It's crazy… Gotham's gone bloody psycho.

Ivy: No, it's worse.

Harley: Yeah. This is like wakin' up from a nightmare, only ta find out you're still awake.

King: Yeah… I know from experience, Harley. Trust me.

Harley: It's what he would want, Mistah K. My puddin'...

John: Okay, what's next?

Harley: That's the thing about Mistah J. You can't ever tell, but you know it ain't gonna be good.

**Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum, the two henchmen of the Mad Hatter charge at the sperg and former intern**

Twiddle-Dee (voiced by Sam Reigel): Now Tweedle-Dum, Cut these intruders down to Size-

**They both get hit by a massive blast of energy, yeeting them in an instant**

Mr Terrific: There IS a way out, Dr. Quinzel. But it may mean going even deeper into the rabbit hole. The name's Mr. Terrific.

Ivy: Impressive. This part of your plan, John?

John: You could say that…

Mr. Terrific: We're gonna bring fair play back to this city! Who's with me?

GA: Now that… That's crazy, Right?

Harley: Well, Mistah G, it's all about how ya look at things, ain't it?

**Ivy rolls her eyes and facepalms as John sighs and Damien just tisks**


	9. Chapter 9: A Chilly Turnabout

**Wonderland Bordering, in the 6th ring of Gotham, The Gotham Resistance, as well as John and King are throwing down with roided up versions of Zazz, Penguin, and The Ventriliquist**

GA_: I still remember making my first compass on the island. Cobbled together with twigs, string, shrapnel, and a half remembered passage from a boy scout manual. For the first time since the shipwreck, I had direction. __I didn't know where I was, but I knew where to go. The arrow was pointing due north_

King: Nightwing, we have to keep moving! That Dark Robin isn't too far behind us, even with that bad leg!

Nightwing: What we need is a place to regroup that's not full of 'roided-out Gotham Villians. Mr. Terrific?

**Mr. Terrific sees another Rabbit Hole**

Mr. Terrific: Another Rabbit Hole! Quick, follow me!

**They jump in**

Harley: Can't be late.

GA: _But here, now in Gotham, the opposite is true. This city defies any sense of direction. And if I knew I had that old compass with me now, it would be spinning out of control._

**They land in another part of this nightmare Wonderland**

GA: What's the point, Mr. Terrific? We're going around in circles here.

King: You need to tell us what the bloody hell is going on.

Mr. Terrific: Believe it or not, it's worse then it seems, Green Arrow, King.

King: How can it get bloody worse then this?

**Mr. Terrific gets out his T-Sphere and it opens, showing the 6 cards that our heroes found.**

Mr Terrific: Before all of this insanity started, Batman tasked me and GB with investigating an unknown region beyond the known multiverse. He knew something was coming.

John: Okay, but what does that have to do with the cards?

Mr. Terrific: You've encountered these cards on your journey through the ringed maze of Gotham.

King: We got that bloody part, mate. But what does it have to do with the cards?

Mr. Terrific: The metal. They're made from emits an incomparable energy. They are what has changed Gotham.

King: Your point?

John: Who are those freakshows who are working with Vigo, Beo, Satan, Samuel and the others?

Mr. Terrific: Look, I've only caught glimpses of them through my T-Spheres, but from what I've seen, there are eight of these creatures. Twisted, depraved versions of the Batman we know and love, and the one running the show is the most frightening of them all.

King: And this nightmarish ringleader is…?

Mr. Terrific: They call him The Batman Who Laughs, turned Gotham into this never-ending nightmare, with the help of Batman's greatest rogues. He presented each with a card, and an opportunity to re-create Gotham in their image. Of course, they all took him up on the offer, and so Gotham warped into a maze of nightmares, with Challenger's Mountain spiking from its center

John: Jesus… That explains why everything is the motif of the villains we fought in the past…

Mr. Terrific: Exactly. Also, it seems to act like a monstrous antenna. A nexus of dark energy.

King: But is it science, magic? What are we dealing with?

Mr. Terrific: What you need to understand is that its science, not magic. They're rewriting the laws of physics in Gotham City from the ground up.

King: But how…?

John: That's what I wanna know.

Mr. Terrific: I have no idea. I have more PhD's than you have fingers, but I can't think my way through this. The dark metal in those cards deifies every law of science and reason I've ever known.

**Damien stops the others**

Damien: Hold on, T-Ball. You said you were working with my father? When?

Mr. Terrific: Before Challenger's Mountain appeared in Gotham. Batman asked me to study it, Robin.

**As they converse, Nightwing gets yet another headache**

GA: Nightwing!

King: You're still having those visions, right? Do we wanna know what you are seeing now?

Nightwing: I...I don't even know, and there's music. Batman at a window, talking to me… But I can't hear him, just the same chords over and over. And something more… Something… Moving...

**Nightwing sees a machine that wouldn't look out of place in a Cyberpunk movie lumbering to the mountain in his vision**

Nightwing: A machine. The Teen Titans, Croc. They're all on it. Connected, like batteries. It's headed towards the mountain. But we can't trust anything I see.

King: Why, mate?

John: Dr. Hurt's dark metal blade must've triggered something in Nightwing. I think it's the Electrum the Court of Owls put in his blood.

King: Oh, I get it now. That metal we found in the armory back in the lake of ice. I think that was Nth Metal. That's why he was drawn to it. It was a stockpile for something like this.

Mr. Terrific: I think I know what they're doing. Every living being from our reality vibrates at a certain frequency. The frequency of our multiverse. If they use their metal, and change the frequency of enough people, our entire world will tumble out of existance as we know it, and into the Dark Multiverse.

King: Fuck me… That's not bloody good.

John: You can say that again… How can we stop it?

**Mr Terrific just looks at John with a crestfallen expression on his face**

Mr. Terrific: It's already started, John. The mountain at the heart of the city, There are hundreds of bodies planted in it, attached to it, consumed by it. It's like a hive. A hideous Garden. If those guys are taken there, then we've already lost them-

King: Don't worry, they're safe in Shang Tsung's island. What's left of it anyway…

GA: I don't understand. Then how the hell do we stop those guys? How do we get Gotham City back?

John: I'm a man of logic more than faith, Ollie, and I don't think we can beat it in our current state.

**Harley perks up**

Harley: On that happy note, I say we skedaddle and give Waller a ring, let her send some other inmates in here to finish the mission

King: We're not going anywhere, Harley. We've lost CHILDREN to the mountain, for Christ's sake-

Damien: They are NOT children, they're my friends. I lead them here. I won't leave them here with that psychotic perversion of me. I know what they think, what you all must think. That I'm this selfish kid just lashing out at my father. I'm not going to prove them right by running out on them.

John: I'm with you, Damien, but right now, we need a game plan.

Damien: In Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll says "Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality. The rouges have imagined their realms. Let's imagine their destruction. And I know exactly how to do it, with your help. If my father is truly gone, then it's up to me to save this city. Up to us. I already abandoned one team, and I won't do that again.

**Green Arrow looks at King**

GA: You know, when Batman asked me to look after Robin and keep him safe, it was clear enough that the World's Greatest Detective didn't know a damn thing about his own son.

King: Same with Kojin?

GA: Yeah. Thankfully, I speak teenager, and no matter what they say. All they want is the illusion of being in charge, while having a support system to fall back on.

John: Yeah. Robin here wants to be just like his dear old dad, but it's only now that he understands that Bats did more then build teams, he worked with them.

GA: I guess the short version is that we're with you kid. What's our mission?

Damien: Simple. Stop the machine, get our friends, save our city, kick in the face of whoever gets in our way.

Harley: Now yer talkin', kiddo. We're the Gotham Reisistance.

**John rolls his eyes**

John: Y'know, the more I'm around her, the more I have the urge to have Blaze Fenix firebomb everything within a 9 circle radius.

King: Dude, they're on a mission too.

John: I know…

**They head to Bane's House of Pain, where all hell's breaking loose, seeing a massive machine shaped like a grotesque spider**

King: Nightwing was right.

John: Holy shit. Are they… Are they still alive?

Robin: Yes, for now, John. If I can get on that thing, I might be able to free them.

Green Arrow: Then let's wait for an opening and make a break for it.

**They head through the house of pain, going from building to building**

Nightwing: This is as close as I've been able to get. Remember that the mountain is like an antenna for Dark Energy. The closer you get, the more you get lost in your own mind.

**They see a jacked up version of Scarface, (voiced by Mark Hamill as he not only punches a hulked up version of Arnold in the mush, but aslo kick him in the stomach for a fisherman's brainbuster**

Scarface: Ya ain't ever layin' a hand on me, Arnold!

**John dodges a haymaker from a jacked up version of The Flamingo, and knees him in the stomach, before delivering a brutal flip kick, knocking him out**

John: Let's hope we don't go lost in our heads.

Harley: My mind CAN'T be guarded, Mistah JP. It escaped its padded cell a long time ago.

John: Maybe that will give you and edge, Harley.

**John then dodges a bulked up Lock-Up's clothesline and kicks out the big man's legs before doing a double stomp that knocks him to the floor, and out cold**

King: Arrow, how many shots do you have left? **is dodging strikes from a bulked up Kite Man**

GA: I'm running low. Just three plus the one that I took from the owls' armory, so be careful. I won't have to many bolts to back you up once we run for it.

Robin: Pfft. I was trained by the league of assassins and am more of a master of the bow and arrow then you are.

King: Must've been a tiny bloody bow then. **kicks the jacked up joke of a villian in the back of the head and delivers a brutal bulldog**

Robin: Ha ha, very funny. I just prefer a more hands-on approach.

John and King: PHRASING!

**A monsterous Sumo Wrestler lands down and palm strikes them both as the two spergs gun it alongside the GR**

Mr. Terrific: This is our opening! Go!

**They haul it as the Dark Damien watches, a massive grin on his face**

Mr. Terrific: Move fast! Our objective is to stop the machine before it reaches the mountain!

King: Sure, easy for the bloody decathlon runner to say!

**The Dark Damien lands down in front of the group**

Dark Damien: Hi there. Think it's time that you and I had a little heart-to-heart!

**King of Kings by Motorhead starts playing as King unsheaths his sword, spinning it and points it at his demonic opponent**

John: Get away from Robin, you monster!

Nightwing: We're not going to let you hurt him!

Bane (voiced by Fred Tatasciore): Well then, lo siento to say, but you're in the wrong place.

**They look up, and on a throne with beautiful women in showy outfits, is Bane with announcer (Voiced by Bruce Buffer), as Hail to the King by Avenged Sevenfold starts playing**

Announcer: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETS GET READY TO RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

**Harley runs up to the machine, hammer at the ready**

Harley: IT'S SMASH TIME!

King: Harley, DON'T! **is fighting some Crows**

Mr. Terrific: My T-Sphere scans are telling me that Task Force X and the Teen titan's are Connected to the machine's dark energies. If we destroy the Machine, we could kill them.

Harley: You sure are cautious for somebody who's got balls of steel, Mistah T.

**She looks up and sees Croc, who looks like he's been through hell**

Harley: Croc pot! How do I get you down from there, sweetie?

Croc: You don't… Croc has seen things. Terrible things. He showed Croc. You must go, Harley…. You must run. Tell Waller to blow us up. Blow it all up. Please. Before the bat-thing comes. Before Barbatos shows you…. Oh no… That's his music… The Other… The Batman who Laughs

John: Huh?

**Psychosocial by Slipknot is heard being blasted as John sees a hot rod version of the Batmobile with flames coming out of the exhaust and a high caliber machine gun manned by a crow and an orb holding Raven drives to them, nearly running John down as he gets out of the way**

BWL: See, out of all the realms, this one might be my favorite, at least Bane is a man who knows what he wants. Am I right, Dr. Quinn

Harley: Mistah…. B?

BWL: It's good to see you again. I missed you. See, on my world, you and I. We actually ride off together in the end. Isn't that right, Raven?

Raven: Harley Quinn, don't listen to him. This Batman. He's empty of all emotions except evil! You must run! GO!

**The Batman Who Laughs flings the door and walks out, his grin wider then normal**

BWL: That's because I never could find a good therapist to talk to! How about it, Dr. Quinn? You willing to make me one of your patients.

John (OS): Please, god, yes!

**Harley thinks it over**

Harley: I've had this dream, but…. This ain't a dream, is it?

**BWL strokes her chin**

BWL: No, Harley. It's just… Madness. You've always loved madness, haven't you, baby?

**They get close as John rolls his eyes, ready to psyche the Hellraiser reject**

Harley: I…

**Several Crows divert John's attention**

Harley: Hey, Wait! NO! Get your gimps offa me! This ain't funny-

**One off them gets shot in the face by a .357 magnum round**

John: Psyche, you fucking bat-gimp!

BWL: Heh, trying to play hero, Red Demon? Where did that get you?

John: I've owned up to what I've done, freakshow.

BWL: Hook her up with the rest!

King: Like fucking hell you will

**King summons Blue-Eyes White Dragon **

King: Blue-Eyes, White Lightning!

**The crows that are dragging her hear a roar and get vaporized by one of King's ace monsters**

Mr. Terrific: We won't let you do this! You hear me?

**Out of the shadows walks Vigo, who points his sword at Terrific**

Vigo: And the great Mr. Terrific finally shows himself.

BWL: We've enjoyed watching you these last few days, you know? Gathering my cards, like they could be used against me. Finding allies to fight a war that you don't realize you've already lost. It's about to be become very clear now, Michael… Just watch.

**The sphere glows with a blinding light, as Robin gets into a sword fight with the Dark Damien**

Dark Damien: I'm not here to fight, Brother. I'm here to help you! I'm what you're suppose to be! What you could be! If you'd stop worrying about false friends, False family….

Robin: Shut up! You don't know anything about me!

**Nightwing tackles and slams the demon child into the ground**,** before putting his forearm against his larynx**

Nightwing: Robin, don't listen to him. He's-

**Nightwing feels his head burn up as Samuel walks out of the shadows, using Nightwing's worse fears against him**

Samuel: He's telling him the truth. The hard things you never will, Nightwing.

Announcer: And the fight gets dirty!

**Arrow, meanwhile, fires off his already dwindling supply of arrows, as Industructible by Disturbed starts playing**

Arrow: Damn, I keep hitting him… But he doesn't seem to feel anything

**Samuel clashes, claw to stick with nightwing**

Samuel: Becuase on his world, Dick, they all turn on him. They try to kill him. And they might have, if not for us!

**Nightwing looks at the corner of his eyes and gets sucker punched by a nanomachine enhanced fist, from Senator Armstrong**

Armstrong: Let's go, circus boy! **charges at him**

**Nightwing then dodges a haymaker and gets football tackled**

Armstrong: Played collage ball, Grayson.

Nightwing: **spits out some blood** At one of those little Ivy League-rs?

**Armstrong lifts him up over his head**

Armstrong: Try University of Texas! I could've gone pro if I haven't joined the Navy. I'm not one of those beltweight pansies. I could break the president in two, with my bare hands.

**Nightwing, using his sticks, shocks his head at the ears, causing him to let go**

Nightwing: Yeah, I was more of a gymnastics kinda guy myself. Been so all my life with the Flying Graysons.

**Dick gets grabbed by Armstrong by the goozlepipe**

Armstrong: Don't fuck with this senator!

**Dick gets chokeslammed right out of his pretty boy cowl**

**Arrow then knocks an arrow of the Nth Metal**

Arrow: This might be the last shot for all of us.

**Dark Damien lunges at Robin**

Dark Damien: Die, you traitor! DIE!

**Ollie's hand starts quivering, but the spirit of Ben takes his hand**

GA: _Your mind's short-circuiting. Concentrate, Ollie. __No room for doubt. Focus. I promised Bruce. I promised I'd protect Robin from Gotham, and from his worst impulses… _

John: Do it!

King: Now!

**Arrow fires off the Nth Arrow, hoping for a clean kill, but Dark Damian ends up putting the son of Batman in the crosshairs, hitting him right in the shoulder, shocking the Star City native and the others.**

Announcer: That's gotta hurt

Nightwing: Damian! No-

**Armstrong lifts Nightwing up in the iconic Von Eric iron claw, ready to squeeze his skull like a soda can**

Armstrong: Hehehehe… You'll be a good warm up for that journalist.

GA: No… What… What have I done?

**Arrow goes to his knees, tearing up and trying to fight the (understandable) urge to cry**

GA: I'm so sorry, Bruce… I failed you…

**Samuel cackles and kicks the spawn of the bat while he is hurting**

Samuel: See? They all turn on you, Damien. They don't trust Bruce, they don't trust you, they never did! And now that you see… I'll let our new friend here tell you what he came to tell you now, before you bleed out like the worthless pig you are…

**Damien looks up as the Dark Damien is awefully close to him, carressing his face**

Dark Damien: See. The Dark Multiverse, it's not just a place where your worst fears live. It's also where your greatest hopes come to life. So here's the thing no one wants to tell you, but I will. The Dark Knights, The Batman Who Laughs. Me? They all us Father's greatest fears, but the opposite is true, brother.

Damien: **Weakly** No…

John: Shut up, you monster!

**Eldritch Surge wraps his tendrals around John's throat, hoping to axpysiate the Red Demon**

Satan: No! Becuase it's true, and ol Bats knows it! Look inside yourself, Damien. You want his love just like our gimp friend did. You want to be beside him…

Dark Damien: Well hear me when I say that I have never felt as loved, Never felt less alone, less uncertain, Than I do now. NEVER! The truth is, for the first time in my whole damn life, I feel happy! And you can too…

Damien: Stop it! STOP!

Dark Damien: See, you know it's true, just like I did! HA! You and I, we're connected!

Damien: Yes… WE are connected… By blood… And metal!

**Damien stabs the arrow into his dark counterpart, and the energy stuns him, as John kicks Eldrich in the face, stunning him before the Red Demon rushes in, stabbing his Karambits through the monster's stomach, before King uses them as a stepping stone before unsheathing his sword and vertically bisecting the demon robin, before he explodes out of existance, the Karambits hitting the pavement with a clang**

Announcer: But that's not how it's supposed to…

**Bane rises from his throne**

Bane: The battle is over! Not it's my turn to fight you, little bats!

**BWL looks up at Bane alongside Samuel**

Samuel: Oh, the battle is just beginning, Bane. Now watch closely, Mr. Terrefic. We'll show you just what those cards can do…

**A massive boom tube opens up, and the Dark Knights, alongside Don Phobos, Kamoshida and the other baddies of the Sperg Crew appear, Cyborg draped around them, what's left of him anyway.**

John: My god… Look at him. They're all him. And with our worse enemies as well…

King: Is that… Cyborg?! What the bloody hell have they done to him?

GA: I don't know, but they're standing between us and the machine…

**Bane looks down. If he wasn't wearing that mask, he would have a shit eating grin on his face**

Bane: Look at this… So many bats to break.

Announcer: Feel it? All the little bones about to crack, the blood about to spill!

Mr. Terrific: Robin, Green Arrow, King, John. We need to abort the mission! Run, Now!

Samuel: Heh. Run where, though, Michael?

D'Vorah: Because now you are trapped in the center of the maze. Right where This One wanted them from the start.

King: You're smarter then you look, you Kytinn filth… But smarts and survival don't mean a thing once you're crushed like the bug you are!

BWL: But you misunderstand. See, I still plan, like I did in my old life. I just don't play the detective or hero anymore because I finally saw the truth. Which is that searching for answers, for purpose. In the end, it leads you to one place. The Dark, which is where you all are right now.

**A blast of light appears, sending them flying**

?: NO!

**all eyes are on Dr Fate and Cetrion**

Cetrion: Stay back, nightmares and allies of the Dark Multiverse!

John: There's the gods I actually believe in. I'm glad you finally got my signal, Cetrion, Fate.

**Nightwing gets his brother out from the death grip of Eldrich, and helps him to his feet**

Nightwing: Damien, this is our ride out of this hell hole!

Damien: No! My friends were here because of me! I won't leave them behind!

Fate: If you stay, you will die, son of the batman. That is not your destiny

**Cetrion creates a portal of light as Terrefic, King, Nightwing and John jump through to Shang Tsung's Island**

GA: Damien, please! We'll save them, but we need to go! Fight another day, son.

**Damien sighs and nods**

Damien: All right. But we're coming back for you! You hear me?! We'll come back

**They end up being the last two as it close and Damien tumbles into the courtyard**

Shang Tsung: It's good to see you, Daniel. I am Shang Tsung

Mr Terrific: Batman's told me about you.

Shang Tsung: Likewise, although. I wished we had time for formalities or a tour of my island, but the future of the Multiverse hangs in the balance. And not even the Tower of Fate is safe from Barbatos's dark influence.

Michael: Yeesh, that bad, huh?

John: Fraid so if this is the only safe haven left.

**Scorpion appears from hellfire**

Nightwing: Nice meeting you here, hothead.

Scorpion: I am not in the mood for your banter, Grayson. For you see, Zatanna has arranged a rendezvous here in this island, and the parties are assembling now.

Mr. Terrific: Is Plastic Man…

**Sub Zero walks out**

Sub-Zero: His egg is safe, Mister Terrific.

Green Arrow: Well well, if it isn't grandmaster Blueberry Ice.

Sub-Zero: Only Johnny Cage may use that name and live, Oliver Queen.

**The Grandmaster glares a hole through the Emerald Archer**

Green Arrow: I'll still wipe the floor with you, snow cone.

King: Easy, guys…

**Meanwhile, as Raven tends to Josh and Yong, Robin pulls the arrow out of his shoulder**

Damien: GAAAAAH! I failed… I failed my father…

**Ben heals his wound, as he hands the arrow to John**

Ben: Here, take it, John. This was your mission.

John: I know, Benny…

Green Arrow: John, what you're feeling right now? Doubt. Hate. Fear. I feel it, too.

Nightwing: We all feel it! We lost our teams' fighting spirit. We lost the morale of Harley, Croc… We lost Gotham!

**Out of raw frustration, Nightwing punches one of the posts in the gallows**

Damien: No… I lost it. I took us in there. It's my fault. I took lead and…

GA: Stop it…

Sub Zero: Yes, you lead them through the maze, madness, battle. All of it. And you might have wavered in your convictions, but in the end, you kept them focused on target. Finding a way to save the city and the realms form evil. And that is not a loss, Damien Wayne.

Damien: Not a loss? NOT A LOSS? What are you talking about, you grand-bastard?! We lost EVERYTHING!

GA: No, we didn't. Because if there's one thing I learned as Green Arrow, it's that sometimes, if your aim is true, you can lose a battle, but gain direction for the wary.

John: Yeah. We saw what that arrow did to the Dark Robin. It was the Nth Metal, Damien. Don't you see? Those things might have won this round, but because of you…

**John ties a string around a part of the arrow**

John: Now we know how to kill them.

King: True that.

Kojin: And then once we're done… We'll help rebuild Gotham, Detroit, Metropolis and more, right?

**John just nods**

John: Very soon, Kojin.


End file.
